Dr Denis Alexander

Denis Alexander is the Emeritus Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Dr Alexander was previously Chairman of the Molecular Immunology Programme and Head of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Signalling and Development at The Babraham Institute, Cambridge. Prior to that he was at the Imperial Cancer Research Laboratories in London (now Cancer Research UK), and spent 15 years developing university departments and laboratories overseas, latterly as Associate Professor of Biochemistry in the Medical Faculty of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. There he helped to establish the National Unit of Human Genetics.

He was initially an Open Scholar at Oxford reading Biochemistry, before obtaining a PhD in Neurochemistry at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.

Dr Alexander writes, lectures and broadcasts widely in the field of science and religion. From 1992-2013 he was Editor of the journal Science & Christian Belief, and previously served as a member of the executive committee of the International Society for Science and Religion. He gave the Gifford Lectures at St. Andrews University in 2012 and these were published by CUP under the title ‘Genes, Determinism and God’.

Recent selected publications in science and religion

• Alexander, D. R. (2001) ‘Rebuilding the Matrix – Science and Faith in the 21st Century’, Oxford: Lion Publishing, hb 512 pp. pb edn 2002. US hb edn 2003; French edn 2004; Turkish edn 2010; Chinese edn 2013.
• Alexander, D.R. and White R.S. (2004) ‘Beyond Belief – Science, Faith and Ethical Challenges’ Oxford: Lion Publishing.
• Alexander, D.R. (Ed + Chapter). (2005) ‘Can We Know Anything? Science, Faith and Postmodernity’, Leicester: Apollos.
• Alexander, D.R. (2008) ‘Science and religion – negotiating the 21st century rapids’, in A. Bentley (ed) The Edge of Reason, London: Continuum.
• Alexander, D.R. (2008, 2nd edn 2014) ‘Creation or Evolution – Do We Have to Choose?’, Oxford: Monarch.
• Alexander, D.R.and Numbers, R.L. (eds) (2010) ‘Biology and Ideology from Descartes to Dawkins’, University of Chicago Press.
• Alexander, D. R. (2011) ‘The Language of Genetics – an Introduction’. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press and London: Darton, Longman & Todd.
• Alexander, D.R. (2012) ‘A Critique of Intelligent Design’ in Darwinism and Natural Theology: Evolving Perspectives (ed Andrew Robinson), Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Alexander D.R. (2012) ‘Science and Religious Belief in the Modern World: Challenges and Opportunities’ in Science and Religion: Christian and Muslim Perspectives (ed David Marshall), Georgetown University Press, pp 35-45.
• Alexander D.R. (2012) ‘Creation and Evolution’ in Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity (eds James Stump and Alan Padgett), pp 233-245.
• Alexander, D.R. (2012) ‘The Spirit of God in Evolutionary History’ in The Spirit in Creation and New Creation[ed Michael Welker], Eerdmans, 2012.
• Alexander, D.R. (2013) ‘L’age d’Adam: deux modeles pour le dialogue entre la Genese at la Science’, in Adam qui es-tu? (Lydia Jaeger, ed), Paris: Editions-Excelsis, pp. 111-128.
• Alexander, D.R. (2013) ‘The Implications of Evolution for Religious Belief’ in K. Kampourakis (ed) Philosophical Issues in Public Education, Springer, pp 179-204.
• Alexander, D.R. (2013) in Can Science Dispense With Religion? (ed. Mehdi Golshani), Amin Research and Cultural Center, Malaysia, pp. 21-39.
• Alexander, D.R. (2014) ‘Order and emergence in biological evolution’, Faith & Thought, April, pp. 18-38.
• Alexander, D.R. (2014) ‘The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion – the First Seven Years’, in The Science and Religion Dialogue[Michael Welker, ed], Peter Lang, pp73-86.
• Whiteway E. and Alexander, D.R. (2015) ‘Understanding the Causes of Same-Sex Attraction’, Science and Christian Belief, 27:17-40.
• Alexander, D.R. [2017] Genes, Determinism and God, CUP [The Gifford Lectures].
• Alexander, D.R. [2018]. ‘Creation, Providence and Evolution’ in Andrew B. Torrance and Thomas H. McCall [eds] Knowing Creation Vol 1, Zondervan, pp. 261-285.
• Alexander, D.R. [2018] Is There Purpose in Biology?, Oxford: Monarch.
• Alexander, D.R. [2018] ‘Order and Emergence in Biological Evolution’, in Gerrit Glas and Jeroen de Ridder (eds), The Future of Creation Order, Springer, pp 151-169.
• Alexander, D.R. [2019] ‘Healing, Enhancement and the Human Future’, Case Quarterly 53: 4-9, 2019.
• Alexander, D.R. [2020] Are We Slaves to Our Genes? [Cambridge University Press]

Selected publications just prior to retiring from active science research in 2008

• Ogilvy, S., Louis-Dit-Sully, C., Cassady, R.L., Alexander, D.R. and Holmes, N. (2003) J.Immunol. 171:1792-1800. ‘Either of the CD45RB and CD45R0 isoforms are effective in restoring T cell, but not B cell, development and function in CD45-null mice’.
• Turner S.D., Tooze R., Maclennan K, and Alexander D.R. (2003) Oncogene 22: 7750-61 ‘Vav-promoter regulated oncogenic fusion protein NPM-ALK in transgenic mice causes B-cell lymphomas with hyperactive Jun Kinase’.
• Zhao, R., Yang, F.-T., and Alexander, D.R. (2004). Cancer Cell, 5: 37-49. ‘An oncogenic tyrosine kinase inhibits DNA repair and DNA damage-induced Bcl-xL deamidation in T cell transformation’.
• Alexander, D.R. (2004) Cell Cycle 3: 584-7 ‘Oncogenic tyrosine kinases, DNA repair and survival’.
• Alexander, D.R. (2005) ‘Biological validation of the CD45 tyrosine phosphatase as a pharmaceutical target” in L.A.Pinna and P.W.Cohen (eds) ‘Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology’, Springer.
• Turner, S.D. and Alexander, D.R. (2005) Leukaemia 7: 1128-1134. ‘What have we learnt from mouse models of NPM-ALK induced lymphomagenesis?’
• Elliott, J.I., Surprenant, A., Marelli-Berg, F.M., Cooper, J.C., Cassady-Cain, R.L., Wooding, C., Linton, K., Alexander, D.R. and Higgins, C.F. (2005). Nat. Cell. Biol. 7: 808-816. ‘Membrane phosphatidylserine distribution as a non-apoptotic signaling mechanism in lymphocytes’.
• Salmond, R.J., Huyer, G., Kotsoni, A., Clements, L. and Alexander, D.R. (2005) J. Immunol. 2005, 175: 6498-6508. ‘The src Homology 2 Domain-Containing Tyrosine Phosphatase 2 Regulates Primary T-Dependent Immune Responses and Th Cell Differentiation’.
• Turner S.D. and Alexander, D.R. (2006). Leukemia 20: 572-82. ‘Fusion Tyrosine Kinase Mediated Signalling Pathways in the Transformation of Haematopoietic Cells’.
• Zhao,, R., Oxley, D., Smith, T.S., Follows, G.A., Green, A.R. and Alexander, D.R. (2007) Plos Biology, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050001. ‘DNA Damage-induced Bcl-xL Deamidation is Mediated by NHE-1 Antiport Regulated Intracellular pH’.
• McNeill, L. Salmond, R.J. Cooper, J.C., Carret, C.K., Cassady-Cain, R.L., Roche-Molina, M., Tandon, P., Holmes, N. and Alexander, D.R. (2007) Immunity 27: 425-437. ‘The differential regulation by CD45 of Lck kinase phosphorylation sites is critical for TCR signalling thresholds’.
• Rider, D.A., Havenith, C.E.G., de Ridder, R., Schuurman, J., Favre, C., Cooper, J.C., Walker, S., Baadsgaard, O., Marschner, S., van de Winkel, J.G.J., Cambier, J., Parren, P.W.H.I. and Alexander, D.R. (2007) Cancer Res. 67: 9945-9953. ‘A human CD4 monoclonal antibody for the treatment of T cell lymphoma combines inhibition of T cell signaling by a dual mechanism with potent Fc-dependent effector activity’.
• Zhao, R., Follows, G.A., Beer, P.A., Scott, L.M., Huntly, B.J.P, Green, A.R. and Alexander, D.R. (2008). New England J. Medicine, 359: 2778-2789. ‘Inhibition of the Bcl-x_L deamidation pathway in myeloproliferative disorders’.

Back to People