Associate Prof Rebecca Campbell, who directs the Otago interdisciplinary research team, said it was "hugely encouraging" to gain the HRC support. The funding was a "real acknowledgement of the importance of this type of work".
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a major endocrine disorder affecting about one in 10 women of reproductive age globally, and one of the leading causes of infertility in women. There is no cure. In April, Prof Campbell’s research team published a study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight showing that blocking androgen actions could help reset reproductive function to normal levels by modifying brain circuitry important to fertility.
Androgens are male sex hormones.
Prof Campbell works in the university’s Centre for Neuroendocrinology, its Brain Health Research Centre and physiology department.
She will receive $4,999,604 over five years.
She is one of five researchers from around the country who have received grants totalling just under $25million as part of the HRC’s funding for long-term research programmes.
Prof Campbell said future work by her and her colleagues would provide "valuable new knowledge on the forefront of basic research aimed at understanding polycystic ovary syndrome and steroid hormone signalling in the female brain".
"We have the opportunity now with the tools that we have available to us to understand at the cellular level and whole-organism level what androgens are doing in the female brain," she said.
The team’s ground-breaking research had already discovered the important role the brain played in PCOS.
Although the work planned over the next five years was still pre-clinical, it would help build a picture about "potentially effective therapies" for PCOS.
"Our hypothesis is that androgen excess is involved in establishing the syndrome and that long-term blockade of androgen actions can restore healthy brain structure and function to support healthy fertility and endocrine control," she said.
She is joined by Associate Prof Christine Jasoni and Prof Greg Anderson, fellow principal investigators in the university neuroendocrinology and brain research centres, and anatomy department members.
The team also includes Prof Inger Sundstrom-Poromaa at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.
Fertility New Zealand vice-president Juanita Copeland said Prof Campbell’s research "offers hope for the many New Zealand women living with PCOS".
"PCOS is one of the major medical conditions contributing to infertility, and a cure would improve chances for many PCOS women who are trying to conceive.
"We welcome all funding of research into fertility-impacting conditions," Ms Copeland said.
• PCOS syndrome is a set of symptoms related to elevated levels of androgens (male hormones) in females and includes irregular or no menstrual periods, heavy periods, excess body and facial hair, acne, pelvic pain and patches of thick, darker, velvety skin.