Drs Teodora Georgescu (left) and Kristina Smiley (right) have been awarded project support grants from the British Society for Neuroendocrinology to help with their research on the hormone prolactin.
The two postdoctoral fellows work with Prof Dave Grattan and Dr Rosie Brown to investigate how this hormone is involved in shaping the parental behaviour of mice needed for raising offspring successfully. Specifically, Teodora is interested in how prolactin regulates maternal aggression towards intruders to protect her pups. The grant ($10,000) will help her to buy equipment to monitor prolactin-responsive cells in the brain while the mother is displaying aggressive behaviour. Kristina, on the other hand, will investigate how or whether prolactin is needed for paternal behaviour in male mice and received funding for equipment needed to manipulate prolactin receptor signalling in certain areas of the brain ($8,000).