Rate My Professor Dave Grattan

Professor Dave Grattan holds the position of Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, at the University of Otago. He obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Physiology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1991. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA, he returned to New Zealand and joined the University of Otago as a lecturer in the Department of Anatomy in 1995. He was promoted to Professor in 2009 and served as Head of the Department from 2011. Grattan is also the Director of the Centre for Neuroendocrinology and leads the Grattan Laboratory. He has been a Management Principal Investigator for the Maurice Wilkins Centre, a National Centre for Research Excellence, since 2014.

His research specializes in neuroendocrinology, particularly the neuroendocrine control of prolactin secretion and its central actions in the brain. Key areas include the neurobiological and neuroendocrine adaptations of the maternal brain during pregnancy and lactation, hormonal regulation of body weight and glucose homeostasis, and the mechanisms by which elevated prolactin levels cause infertility. The Grattan Laboratory employs techniques such as radioimmunoassay, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridisation, and transgenic mouse models to study hormone effects on hypothalamic neuronal activity. Grattan has published over 100 original research articles, invited reviews, and book chapters in the fields of endocrinology and neuroscience, with an H-index of 39. Notable recent publications include "SOCS2 deficiency drives sex-specific remodeling of mineralized tissues" (Bone, 2026), "Distinct macronutrient ratios optimize offspring survival, growth, and maternal glucose tolerance across mouse reproduction" (PNAS, 2026), "Prolactin mediates a lactation-induced suppression of arcuate kisspeptin neuronal activity necessary for lactational infertility in mice" (eLife, 2025), and "Prolactin modulation of thermoregulatory circuits provides resilience to thermal challenge of pregnancy" (Cell Reports, 2025). He has received several prestigious awards, including the Triennial Medal of the Physiological Society of New Zealand (2005), the Mortyn Jones Medal of the British Society for Neuroendocrinology (2009), the Nancy Sirett Lecturer of the New Zealand Society of Endocrinology (2011), and the Distinguished Investigator of the Year for the Otago School of Medical Sciences (2011). In 2024, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi for his contributions to understanding hormone-induced adaptations in the maternal brain. Additionally, Grattan served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology from 2009 to 2013 (impact factor 3.5) and chaired the organising committee for the 8th International Congress of Neuroendocrinology in Sydney, Australia, in 2014.