Dr. Christie obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Otago, where he worked in the world-renowned Graham Goddard laboratory complex with Dr. Cliff Abraham and studied long-term depression of Synaptic efficacy. Dr. Christie then completed post-doctoral training at the University of Otago as a Health Research Fellow before moving to Houston, Texas, where he received post-doctoral fellowship funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to work with Dr. Daniel Johnston at Baylor College of Medicine. He then became an HHMI post-doctoral fellow working with Dr. Terry Sejnowski at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences before assuming his first faculty position at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine in 1999. Dr. Christie was then recruited to the University of British Columbia in 2001, where he became an active member in the rapidly growing Brain Research Center (Now the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health).

In 2007, Dr. Christie moved his laboratory to start a research program at the newly created UBC Island Medical Program in Victoria. As part of this move, his primary appointment was transferred to the University of Victoria. In his initial years at the University of Victoria, Dr. Christie helped found the Neuroscience Graduate Program in 2009 and served as the inaugural program director and graduate advisor until 2018. Dr. Christie’s research program focuses on sex differences in brain plasticity; with a particular emphasis on promoting functional recovery in brain function following prenatal drug and teratogen exposure, acquired brain injury, and in congenital conditions such as Fragile X Syndrome. His clinical work also explores sex differences in promoting cognitive function in the aging brain and following brain injury. Dr. Christie’s laboratory is funded by awards from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Fragile-X (FRAXA) Research Foundation, MITACS, and through contributions from generous donors.

Twitter – @BrainbBr