Dr Kristina Smiley (on the right in the picture) has won the research staff award for her presentation at the 258th scientific meeting of the Otago Medical School Research Society. Her colleague Dr Teodora Georgescu (on the left) was runner-up.
Only five Speakers from the University's Medical School and Biomedical Research School were selected to present their research. The Centre for Neuroendocrinology was represented well – Drs Teodora Georgescu and Kristina Smiley gave talks about how the hormone prolactin is involved in regulating more complex processes than just milk production. In recent years the groups of Dr Rosie Brown (Dept of Physiology) and Prof Dave Grattan (Anatomy) have started to establish that prolactin is required for appropriate parental behaviour to look after offspring. At the meeting, Dr Georgescu reported her findings on the mothers' aggression towards pup-threatening intruders, whereas Dr Smiley presented “A novel role for prolactin in paternal behaviour”.