Hormones and Behaviour Group

Our research aims to identify and to understand neurobiology driving behaviour, including alcohol use, anxiety and adaptive/maladaptive decision-making. We have a major focus on understanding differences between the sexes that may underpin aspects of biology and behaviour – and to help build our fundamental understanding of women’s biology, and how we can use this information to make more precise and tailored treatments for women.

In recent decades, alcohol misuse has risen dramatically in women — by more than 80% compared to 35% in men. Women aged 15–39 in Australia and New Zealand now have the highest global rates of harmful alcohol use. This is particularly concerning as women experience more severe alcohol-related consequences and transition more rapidly from casual drinking to problematic use. Additionally, emerging evidence suggests that some frontline treatments for alcohol use disorder may be less effective or cause more adverse effects in women.

Our lab is dedicated to uncovering the neurobiological mechanisms driving sex differences in decision-making and the development of alcohol use disorder, including its frequent co-occurrence with anxiety, depression and PTSD. By mapping the physiological, molecular and circuit-level processes that shape behaviour, we aim to identify novel treatment targets. Given the historical gap in research on women’s biology, our work is critical for understanding how treatments may differ in effectiveness — or even cause harm — in certain populations. Through this research, we strive to contribute to a more personalised and effective approach to mental health and addiction treatment.

We combine basic physiology and pharmacology with advanced neuroscience techniques (e.g. spatial transcriptomics, chemogenetics, fiber photometry, RNAscope) in close collaboration with the Addiction Neuroscience Group to understand how stress and drugs of abuse change the brain – leveraging this information to identify potential new targets for treatment.