Ruth Andrew holds a Chair in Pharmaceutical Endocrinology and directs the Clinical Research Facility Mass Spectrometry Core. After qualifying as a pharmacist in 1990, she studied for a PhD in the field of pharmaceutical analysis, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry as an approach to profile catecholamines in hypertension. In 1994 she joined the Endocrinology Unit in the University of Edinburgh to develop further interests in mass spectrometry and establish its use in steroid profiling in cardiovascular disease. Since then Ruth has investigated the regulation of glucocorticoid metabolism and novel actions of A-ring reduced metabolites in obesity and the Metabolic Syndrome. In particular the work of her group has focussed on the role of hepatic 5a-reductase and in dynamic methods to quantify these metabolic pathways in vivo using stable isotope tracers. As Director of the Mass Spectrometry Core Laboratory, she leads a team specialising in small molecule quantitative analysis in support of translational medicine. She takes an active role in teaching both Honours students (Endocrine Pharmacology) and post-graduate students in the Centre for Cardiovascular Science. She is also a Council member of the Society for Endocrinology and an Editor for the British Journal of Pharmacology.

My research interests are in steroid biochemistry and applied mass spectrometry. I study glucocorticoids and their actions on fuel metabolsim and inflammation. I have a particular interest in 5alpha-reduced glucocorticoids as potential dissociated glucorticoid receptor modulators. My other area is in the application of mass spectrometry to enable tracking of steroid metabolism, using stable-isotope tracers and also advanced methods of MS detection e.g. imaging.