Liley Medal – to recognise research that has made an outstanding contribution to health and medical sciences: awarded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand to Professor Allan Herbison FRSNZ of the Department of Physiology at the University of Otago in Dunedin.
Citation: The award recognises Professor Herbison’s contribution in the field of neuroscience and neuroendocrinology. His research, published in 2008 in the Journal of Neuroscience, described the process by which a small group of nerve cells in the brain, called gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons, are activated, thereby triggering the hormone surge that leads to ovulation. This study, involving his laboratory in Dunedin and collaborators in Cambridge, used an elegant experimental design to show an essential role for a small protein called kisspeptin and its receptor, GPR54 in the process. While kisspeptin was known to be involved in the initiation of puberty, its newly discovered role in the brain’s control of ovulation suggests new targets for therapeutic intervention in the treatment of infertility and in contraception.
