Stephanie Borgland, PHD
Associate Professor, Hotchkiss Brain Institute;
University of Calgary
AREAS OF ACADEMIC & RESEARCH INTEREST
- Neural mechanisms of ingestive behaviour
- Eating disorders
- Disorders of aberrant motivation relating to addiction and obesity
At the Borgland laboratory, in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary, Dr. Borgland and her team use a combination of techniques to explore how areas of the brain involved in reward valuation and motivated behaviour are essentially rewired by eating palatable foods or foods that drive obesity. Their laboratory has made exciting discoveries about how insulin and leptin, peptides that help us feel full, impact the brain and in determining the neurobiological factors underlying the promotion and the termination of eating.
"Communicating the fundamental understanding of how the brain responds to diet and nutrition is important not only to drive innovation and treatment, but also to inform our nutritional choices and practices."
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
MEMBERSHIPS & SOCIETIES
Society for Neuroscience
Canadian Association of Neuroscience
Canadian Society for Pharmacology & Toxicology
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Labouèbe, G., Liu, S., Dias, C., Zou, H., Wong, J.C., Karunakaran, S., Clee, S.M., Phillips, A.G., Boutrel, B. and Borgland, S.L. (2013). Insulin induces long term depression of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons via endocannabinoids. Nature Neuroscience, 16(3), 300-308.
- Liu, S., Labouèbe, G., Karunakaran, S., Clee, M. and Borgland, S.L. (2013). Effect of insulin on excitatory synaptic transmission onto dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area in a mouse model of hyperinsulinemia. Nutrition and Diabetes, 3, e97.
- Thompson, J. L. and Borgland, S.L. (2013). Presynaptic leptin action suppresses excitatory synaptic transmission onto ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons. Biological Psychiatry, 73(9), 860-868.
- Baimel, C., Bartlett, S.E., Chiou, L.C., Lawrence, A.J., Muschamp, J.W., Patkar, O., Tung, L.W. and Borgland, S.L. (2015). Orexin/hypocretin role in reward: implications for opioid and other addictions. British Journal of Pharmacology, 172(2), 334-348.
- Baimel, C. and Borgland, S.L. (2015). Orexin signaling in the VTA gates morphine-induced synaptic plasticity. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(18), 7295-7303.
