Deborah (Debbie) Baines was awarded a PhD in Molecular Physiology from the University of Bristol. Following this she worked for a biotech company as a Senior Scientist before moving to the University of Dundee as a postdoctoral research assistant working on the mechanisms regulating lung fluid homeostasis. In 2000, she was appointed as a Tenure Track Scientist at St George’s, University of London where she has continued to conduct research, predominantly focused on the regulation of ion and solute transport across the airway epithelium in health and disease with a focus on Cystic Fibrosis disease. Key research areas include glucose homeostasis in the lungs and how hyperglycaemia promotes respiratory infection and the development of gene editing for Cystic Fibrosis.

Debbie is a Fellow of the Physiological Society and was a Trustee of the Society and Chair of the Publications Committee responsible for the international Journal of Physiology, Experimental Physiology and Physiological Reports. She has been an active Committee Member for Cell and Molecular Physiology section of the American Physiological Society and remains on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Physiology, Cell Physiology. She is also a Board Member of the South West Thames Institute of Renal Research.

Other memberships include the British Pharmacological Society and the the British Association for Lung Research. She speaks frequently at national and international research meetings and has chaired a number of international symposia in the field.

Debbie is currently the Associate Dean for Research Culture.  With colleagues she is working to create a positive and supportive research culture where researchers feel empowered to do their best work and deliver impact which transforms the lives of people around the globe Research culture

Professor Baines research has centered on how mutations, hormones and environmental factors such as oxygen modulate cellular signalling mechanisms to regulate the transcription, translation and activity of transport proteins in the lung epithelial cell membrane.  Transport of Na⁺ via the amiloride-sensitive epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) and Cl^- via the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) are essential for lung fluid homeostasis and the regulation of ASL volume. Altered transport is linked with the pathogenesis of Cystic Fibrosis (CF), COPD, pseudohypoaldosteronism Type 1, respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn and with high altitude pulmonary oedema. A combination of molecular, electrophysiological and microscopy techniques are utilised to study these cellular signalling pathways.

Professor Baines group was the first to show that glucose concentrations in the ASL are raised in patients during airway inflammation (eg in respiratory diseases), when blood glucose levels are raised (hyperglycaemia; eg diabetes) and, more potently, when both are present (common in CF disease and COPD), making the airway more susceptible to infection from pathogens such as methicillin-resistant S.aureus and P.aeruginosa. Current research is focussed on identifying the processes by which the lung epithelium keeps airway secretions free of glucose and how these change in disease.

Currently, Professor Baines group is part of a Strategic Research Center, funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, who are utilising gene editing techniques to repair mutations in the CFTR gene and correct lung function in people with Cystic Fibrosis (https://www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/the-work-we-do/research/research-we-are-funding/strategic-research-centres/src-8-hart-gene-editing).

In collaboration with other laboratories inside and outside St George’s, the group studies the wider contribution of ion transport proteins (bestrophin, TMEM16A, Kv7s, SGLT) and signalling pathways (TGFß, Smad, ERK5) to other epithelial and non-epithelial cell function.