Rate My Professor Stephen Bunn

Associate Professor Stephen Bunn holds a BSc (Hons) in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Surrey and a PhD from Imperial College London, where his doctoral research examined the localization of opioid receptor subtypes within the brain. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Melbourne on a Royal Society Fellowship, investigating opioid receptor actions on neurosecretory chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. Subsequent NH&MRC-funded postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, expanded his work on receptor-mediated signaling in these cells. In 1998, Bunn joined the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago as faculty and became a founding member of the Centre for Neuroendocrinology. He is affiliated with the Brain Health Research Centre and contributes to the Neuroscience Research Group, employing techniques such as neuronal cell culture, immunocytochemistry, confocal microscopy, immunoblotting, isolated cell cultures, and transgenic animal models.

Bunn's major research interest lies in the neuroendocrinology of stress. His work addresses the complex regulation of adrenal medullary chromaffin cells, focusing on their secretory output of catecholamines and peptides in response to multiple stress-activated inputs, particularly cytokine interactions like interleukin-6 signaling. He also explores the role of prolactin as a cytokine in the stress axis, investigating how stressors alter prolactin secretion from the pituitary and its contributions to stress adaptation during physiological states such as pregnancy and lactation, including phenotypic switches in tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic neurons and pSTAT5 activation. Notable publications include 'The role of prolactin in the suppression of the response to restraint stress in the lactating mouse' (Gustafson et al., Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 2024), 'Lactation and the control of the prolactin secretion' (Szawka et al., 2024), 'Elevated Prolactin during Pregnancy Drives a Phenotypic Switch in the Tuberoinfundibular Dopamine Network' (2019, Cell Reports), and 'Impact of chronic variable stress on neuroendocrine hypothalamus and pituitary in male and female C57BL/6J mice' (2021). His research has garnered over 2,000 citations, influencing understandings of neuroendocrine cell signaling and stress responses.