Research interests
The focus of our research is on discovering how the maternal environment during pregnancy affects the formation of the fetal brain. With conditions such as obesity and diabetes on the rise in Western society, it is critical that we fully understand the health implications of these disorders for future generations.
At the Centre for Neuroendocrinology we seek to:
- Discover epigenetic changes in the brains of the offspring of obese or diabetic mothers
- Establish specifically how these changes bring about altered development of axon tracts in the offspring hypothalamus
Clinical conditions
- Pregnancy complications
- Childhood obesity
- Mental illness
Jasoni Laboratory staff & students
Yugo Watanabe, Postdoctoral Fellow
The origins of PCOS by prenatal androgen exposure
Email yugo.watanabe@otago.ac.nz
Matt Higgins, PhD student
The mechanisms underpinning leptin signaling in maturation of arcuate nucleus body weight homeostasis neural circuitry
Email: matt.higgins@postgrad.otago.ac.nz
Lorryn Fisher, Research Technician
Changes in neural circuitry and gene expression in the offspring of obese dams
Email lorryn.fisher@otago.ac.nz
Visit Our people for an alphabetical list of all Centre for Neuroendocrinology staff.
Publications
Campbell, R. E., Sati, A., Coyle, C., Prescott, M., Jasoni, C. L., & Desroziers, E. (2022, August). How androgen excess shapes the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)-like brain. Verbal presentation at the Metabolic & Cardiovascular Disease Satellite Meeting: Queenstown Research Week, Queenstown, New Zealand.
Higgins, M., Glendining, K., & Jasoni, C. (2022, August-September). The distribution of leptin receptor expressing cells in the developing mouse hypothalamus. Poster session presented at the New Zealand Medical Sciences Congress (MedSci), Queenstown, New Zealand.
Zhou, Y., Neyt, C., Batchelor, N. J., Jaafar Amsak, K., Anderson, G. M., Kelley, R., Jasoni, C. L., Girling, J. E., & Pankhurst, M. W. (2022, August-September). AMH modulates luteinising hormone secretion during pregnancy in a mouse miscarriage model. Verbal presentation at the New Zealand Medical Sciences Congress (MedSci), Queenstown, New Zealand.
Zhou, Y., Neyt, C., Batchelor, N. J., Kelley, R. L., Jaafar Amsak, K., Anderson, G. M., Oorschot, D. E., Jasoni, C. L., Girling, J. E., & Pankhurst, M. W. (2022). Fetal resorption coincides with dysregulated LH secretion in AMH-overexpressing mice. Journal of Endocrinology, 253(2), 53-62. doi: 10.1530/joe-21-0430
Watanabe, Y., Prescott, M., Campbell, R. E., & Jasoni, C. L. (2021). Prenatal androgenization causes expression changes of progesterone and androgen receptor mRNAs in the arcuate nucleus of female mice across development. Journal of Neuroendocrinology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/jne.13058
