Rate My Professor Holly Phillipps

Holly Phillipps is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Neuroendocrinology and in the Department of Anatomy, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Otago. She conducts research on prolactin secretion and signaling in the rodent brain, with a focus on its roles during the estrous cycle, pregnancy, and lactation. Working in the Grattan laboratory, her studies utilize mouse models to investigate neuroendocrine mechanisms.

Key publications by Phillipps include 'Elevated prolactin secretion during proestrus in mice: Absence of a defined surge' (Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 2022), which characterized elevated prolactin levels during proestrus in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice without a discrete surge through frequent blood sampling and modeling. In 'Prolactin regulation of insulin-like growth factor 2 gene expression in the choroid plexus of the adult mouse brain' (FASEB Journal, 2019), she demonstrated rapid induction of Igf2 mRNA by prolactin in the choroid plexus. Other notable works are 'Acute Suppression of LH Secretion by Prolactin in Female Mice' (Endocrinology, 2019), 'Widespread Cell-Specific Prolactin Receptor Expression in the Mouse Brain' (Endocrinology, 2019), 'Maintained expression of genes associated with metabolism in the choroid plexus during lactation' (Physiological Reports, 2023), and contributions to studies on prolactin receptors in dopamine neurons and oviduct cells. In 2018, she won the WoW Symposium Postdoctoral Researcher Poster Prize for her presentation on IGF2 as a prolactin-responsive gene. Phillipps serves as a contact for the New Zealand Society of Endocrinology and has hosted webinars for early career researchers in neuroendocrinology.