Best Publication Awards

These awards acknowledge exceptional HNNA member achievements in the past year. The highest quality publication is awarded annually in 2 categories: Student, Early/Mid-Career Researcher.

2023

Student: Rachel Clarke

Identification of a stress-sensitive anorexigenic neurocircuit from medial prefrontal cortex to lateral hypothalamus.

EMCR: James McQuillan

Definition of the estrogen negative feedback pathway controlling the GnRH pulse generator in female mice.

EMCR: Alex Reichenbach

Metabolic sensing in AgRP neurons integrates homeostatic state with dopamine signalling in the striatum.

2024

Student: Kaixin (Catherine) Huang

Rapid, automated, and experimenter-free touchscreen testing reveals reciprocal interactions between cognitive flexibility and activity-based anorexia in female rats

EMCR: Kenny Ip

Critical role of lateral habenula circuits in the control of stress-induced palatable food consumption

2022

Student: Chenxu Yan

Peripheral-specific Y1 receptor antagonism increases thermogenesis and protects against diet-induced obesity.

EMCR: Teodora Georgescu

Prolactin-mediated restraint of maternal aggression in lactation.

2025

Student: Cait Beddows

Pathogenic hypothalamic extracellular matrix promotes metabolic disease

EMCR: Romana Stark

Hunger signalling in the olfactory bulb primes exploration, food-seeking and peripheral metabolism

2021

Student: Soniya Xavier

High maternal omega-3 supplementation dysregulates body weight and leptin in newborn male and female rats: Implications for hypothalamic developmental programming.

EMCR: Claire Foldi

Suppression of corticostriatal circuit activity improves cognitive flexibility and prevents body weight loss in activity-based anorexia in rats.

Group Leader: Andrew Lawrence

Acetylcholine muscarinic m4 receptors as a therapeutic target for alcohol use disorder: Converging evidence from humans and rodents.

2026

Student: TBA

EMCR: TBA