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.