Eliot Circular

Students nab prize for work on “hunger hormone”

By Chris Lydgate ’90

A trio of Reed psych majors won a prize at a scientific conference last year for their research into ghrelin—sometimes known as the “hunger hormone.”

Biochem major Eliotte Garling ’18, bio-psych major Lia Zallar ’16, and psych major Hannah Baumgartner ’16 won the Neuroscience/Psychology Poster Prize at the 24th annual Murdock College Science Research Conference held in Vancouver, Washington, for their research into the mechanisms by which ghrelin affects appetite, metabolism, stress, and reward signaling.

Working with Prof. Paul Currie [psych 2007–], the students performed a series of experiments on rats to investigate the effects of ghrelin when injected into different parts of the brain.

“Ghrelin is interesting because it seems to play a role in a lot of different pathways—stress and anxiety, metabolism, eating behavior, reward, and drug-seeking behavior,” says Lia. “With our research, we’re trying to parse out these individual circuits and what part ghrelin plays in them.”

They found that injecting ghrelin into one area of the brain made the rats ravenous. They also found that injecting ghrelin into a different area of the brain made them crave alcohol. Aside from triggering episodes of gluttony, binge-drinking, and remorse in rodents, the research suggests that ghrelin plays a different role in the brain depending on its location.  

The students’ project was titled “Brain-Cannula Mapping Investigations of Acyl Ghrelin in Metabolic, Limbic, and Reward Signaling” and is supported by the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust.