Dr. Stephanie Borgland
Positions
Full Member
Hotchkiss Brain Institute
Full Member
Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education
Child Health & Wellness Researcher
Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute
Contact information
Phone number
Office: +1 (403) 220-6967
Location
Lab: HSC2077
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Background
Educational Background
B.Sc. Biology, University of Victoria, 1994
M.Sc. Pharmacology, University of Manitoba, 1997
Doctor of Philosophy Neuropharmacology, University of Sydney, 2002
Biography
Dr. Stephanie Borgland is a Professor and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Molecular Physiology of Addiction in the Departments of Physiology & Pharmacology as well as Psychiatry at the University of Calgary. She is affiliated with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute. She is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. From 2008-2013 she was an Assistant Professor in the department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia. She received her PhD in Pharmacology/Neuroscience from the University of Sydney, Australia in 2002 and completed her post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco ending in 2007. Her research focuses on understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of aberrant motivation related to addiction and obesity.
Research
Areas of Research
Dr. Borgland is an internationally recognized leader in the neurobiology of motivated behaviour. The Borgland lab uses electrophysiology, behavioral neuropharmacology, circuit tracing, biosensing, and optogenetic techniques to explore how areas of the brain involved in reward valuation and motivated behaviour are rewired by consumption of palatable foods, obesegenic diets or drugs of abuse. The laboratory has made exciting discoveries on how satiety-promoting hormones modulate plasticity within the mesolimbic circuit, palatable food induces plasticity to prime food seeking, and how obesity or drugs of abuse rewire circuits involved in motivated behaviour and reward valuation. Her innovative research is illuminating the neurobiological factors underlying disordered eating or addiction.
The Borgland lab uses a combination of techniques to explore how areas of the brain involved in reward valuation and motivated behaviour are rewired by consumption of palatable foods, obesegenic diets or drugs of abuse. The laboratory has made exciting discoveries on how plasticity within the mesolimbic dopamine circuit is modulated by satiety-promoting peptides, including insulin and leptin and how palatable food can prime future food seeking. Understanding drug or diet-induced plasticity in neural circuits involved in reinforcement or motivated behaviour is of key importance to determining the neurobiological factors underlying disordered eating or addiction.
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Awards
- Canada Research Chair Tier 1, Canada Research Chair. 2018
- Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology Young Investigator Award, Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018
- College of New Scholars, Royal Society of Canada, Royal Society of Canada. 2017
- Cochrane Award for Research, Cumming School of Medicine. 2017
- International Research Collaboration Award, University of Sydney. 2015
- ACNP Travel Award, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. 2014
- Canadian Association of Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, Canadian Association of Neruoscience. 2014
- NARSAD Young Investigator Award, NARSAD (Brain and Behaviour Foundation). 2007
- NARSAD Young Investigator Award, NARSAD (Brain and Behaviour Foundation). 2005
Publications
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