Biography
Lisa Christian is a Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health and the Director of the Stress, Health, and Aging Lab at the Ohio State University Institute of Brain, Behavior and Immunology. See the Stress, Health, and Aging Lab website for an overview of her research program and copies of her publications. Her studies focus on immune and neuroendocrine pathways linking maternal factors, particularly sleep, stress, race, and obesity, with adverse outcomes including preterm birth, poor responses to vaccines, risk for perinatal depression, propensity toward obesity, and effects on fetal/infant development. Her research has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute for Nursing Research, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and uBiome, among others. Across studies, Dr. Christian’s lab has recruited >800 women, 46% African American, 68% socioeconomically disadvantaged, and 82% in longitudinal protocols. In 2016, Dr. Christian was awarded the Robert Ader New Investigator Award from the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society (PNIRS) as well as the Neal Miller Young Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.