Rate My Professor Rebecca Campbell

Professor Rebecca Campbell is a Professor and Deputy Head of Department (Research) in the Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences, at the University of Otago, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Neuroendocrinology. She received her PhD from Oregon Health & Science University in 2002. After completing postdoctoral research at the Centre for Neuroendocrinology, she established her independent research programme in 2009. Campbell leads the Campbell Lab, which investigates the neural regulation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, the final common pathway controlling reproductive function. Her research emphasizes the synaptic innervation of GnRH neuron dendrites and neuroendocrine disruptions in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common cause of female infertility. Employing transgenic mouse models and sophisticated tools including optogenetics, chemogenetics, immunohistochemistry, and behavioural assays, the lab has pinpointed alterations in arcuate nucleus GABAergic circuits and the impacts of prenatal androgen exposure in PCOS models. Her group developed a novel PCOS mouse model revealing brain-based pathophysiology and demonstrated that adult androgen receptor blockade reverses circuit defects and restores reproductive cyclicity.

Rebecca Campbell has secured substantial funding, including Health Research Council grants totalling over NZ$5.5 million, such as a NZ$910,000 project on PCOS pathways and a NZ$4.9 million programme grant as Joint Principal Investigator, alongside Royal Society Marsden Fund awards. In 2020, she received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the School of Biomedical Sciences for exceptional research productivity. Key publications encompass “Definition of estrogen receptor pathway critical for estrogen positive feedback to gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons and fertility” (Neuron, 2006), “Animal models to understand the etiology and pathophysiology of polycystic ovary syndrome” (Endocrine Reviews, 2020), “Enhancement of a robust arcuate GABAergic input to gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons in a model of polycystic ovarian syndrome” (PNAS, 2015), and “Novel role for anti-Müllerian hormone in the regulation of GnRH neuron excitability and hormone secretion” (Nature Communications, 2016). In 2022, she presented her inaugural professorial lecture, “Illuminating the role of the brain in polycystic ovary syndrome,” underscoring her influence in reproductive neuroendocrinology.