Dr. rer. nat. Katharina Hillerer

Research interests

My research investigates how chronic stress and/or stressful environmental conditions may affect the neuroendocrinology and plasticity of the brain during sensitive time windows like pregnancy, lactation and early development. I am mainly interested in neuronal parameters like adult hippocampal neurogenesis and dendritic plasticity in different stress-relevant brain regions. Moreover, I focus on neuroendocrine parameters that might correlate with the neuronal parameters mentioned above and their potential use as markers of stress and welfare in modern livestock farming. Furthermore, I aim to investigate if preventive application of probiotics may buffer neuronal and neuroendocrine stress effects.

Main research topics:

• Alterations of adult hippocampal neurogenesis and dendritic plasticity under stressful conditions
• Neuroendocrine parameters of stress and welfare
• Microbiota-Gut-Brain-Axis in the context of animal welfare

Curriculum Vitae

• Since 09/2023: Research Scientist, KF4B Psychophysiology, Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology(FBN), Dummerstorf, Germany
• 11/2013-07/2023: Head of the Perinatal Research Laboratory at the University Clinic Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics Salzburg (PMU), Clinical Research Center Salzburg (CRCS), Salzburg, Austria
• 05/2012-10/2013: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montréal, Canada
• 01/2008-03/2012: PhD, Department of Neurobiology and Animal Physiology (Prof. Dr. Inga Neumann), University of Regensburg, Germany
• 03/2007-12/2007: Diploma (Biology/Neurobiology), Department of Neurobiology and Animal Physiology (Prof. Dr. Inga Neumann), University of Regensburg, Germany

Publications