Zane Andrews

Professor Andrews is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and is internationally recognised for his work on the neuroendocrine control of energy homeostasis and behaviour. He is currently the deputy editor-in-chief for Endocrinology, the flagship journal for The Endocrine Society, an international society ran from the USA. He is also the current president of Hypothalamic Neuroscience and Neuroendocrinology Australasia (HNNA), a council member on the International Neuroendocrine Federation, the Secretary of the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society and a co-founding member of the Addictive and Compulsive Eating Research Organisation. Professor Andrews uses preclinical animal models and viral genetic techniques to study how the brain responds to hunger to control food intake and associated behaviours. This includes the role of homeostatic and hedonic systems, and how they interact to influence both the need and the desire to eat. His lab is particularly interested in why and how the brain promotes the overconsumption of highly palatable energy dense foods and how this contributes to obesity. His group uses modern neuroscience techniques such as in vivo calcium imaging, optogenetics and chemogenetics to probe the physiological and behavioural function of hunger-sensing neural circuits. He focuses on the hormone ghrelin as a key hormonal signal of hunger and AgRP neurons as key hunger-sensing neurons and how these hunger-sensing systems control food intake and related behaviours such as reward, motivation, mood, memory and cognition.