Catherine Christian-Hinman is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. She is a member of the Neuroscience program; and the program in Endocrinology, Embryology, and Reproduction; and she is an affiliate member of the Neurotechnology for Memory and Cognition Group at the Beckman Institute. Her lab’s research interests include synaptic transmission, cellular and circuit excitability, and glial-neuronal interactions in the contexts of neuroendocrinology and epilepsy.

Education

• A.B., Smith College, 2001

• Ph.D., Neuroscience,  University of Virginia 

• Postdoc, Stanford University School of Medicine, 2008-2014 

• 2021: List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent
• 2020-2021: Center for Advanced Study Fellow, UIUC 
• 2016-2019: Whitehall Foundation Research Grant
• 2016-2018: Brain Research Foundation Fay/Frank Seed Grant
• 2016-2018: NARSAD Young Investigator Grant
• 2016: List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent
  
  

Research interests:

• Endocrinology

• Ion Channels

• Neurobiology

• Synaptic Transmission

• Neurological and Behavioral Disorders

• Reproductive Diseases

• Infertility

• Menopause

My laboratory explores research questions at the intersection of neuroscience, physiology, and endocrinology.  We are particularly interested in the neural mechanisms linking epilepsy and comorbid reproductive endocrine disorders. Both women and men with temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common form of epilepsy seen in adults, show higher rates of reproductive endocrine disorders in comparison with the general population. Importantly, reproductive endocrine problems can reciprocally impact the severity of epilepsy seen and influence the choice and efficacy of anti-seizure treatments. We aim to understand how temporal lobe seizures impact the hypothalamic control of reproduction, and how altered hypothalamic function reciprocally affects seizure activity and epilepsy severity.

Another area of research in the lab examines the roles of estrogen synthesized within the brain in seizures and epilepsy. Although estrogens, particularly estradiol, are primarily observed to have effects that promote seizure activity, much of the attention has been paid to estrogens from the ovaries. The brain itself, however, is also a source of estradiol in both males and females, and concentrations of estradiol in certain areas of the brain can exceed those observed in the circulation. Our ongoing research is examining the specific roles for brain-derived estradiol (neuroestradiol) in excitability and seizures in mouse models of epilepsy and Alzheimer disease.

To perform our research, we use several techniques including patch clamp electrophysiology, optogenetics/chemogenetics, stereotactic surgeries, electroencephalography (EEG), viral vectors, neuroanatomy, and behavioral assays.