Christine Raines is a professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex, where she served as head of the department from 2011-2017. She then became Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) from 2017-2021 and was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Botany from 2012-2020. Her work has been published in multiple publications, including Plant Physiology. Christine has an international reputation for research on the Calvin cycle, with many years of experience in the molecular biology, biochemistry, and physiology of this process.

Work in the Raines’ lab showed that the enzyme SBPase exercises strong control over CO2 assimilation in tobacco plants and that photosynthetic capacity and yield are increased in transgenic tobacco plants with elevated SBPase. Other recent work in the Raines lab showed that activity of the Calvin cycle can be modulated in response to rapidly changing light levels that occur in the natural environment via the dynamic formation and dissociation of the PRK/GAPDH/CP12 complex.