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Jane Hurst

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Jane Hurst
FRSB
Born
Jane Louise Hurst
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham(BSc, PhD)
Known forBehavioural ecology
AwardsASAB Medal(2017)
NC3Rs Prize (2010)
Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association Prize (2019)
OBE (2020)
UFAW Medal (2022)
Frink Medal (2023)
Scientific career
FieldsChemical communication
Pheromones
Laboratory animal welfare
Cooperation
Kin recognition[1]
InstitutionsUniversity of Nottingham
University of Liverpool
ThesisThe behavioural ecology of the house mouse (Mus domesticus)(1984)
Websitewww.liverpool.ac.uk/mammalian-behaviour-and-evolution/team/jane-hurst/

Jane Louise HurstOBEFRSBis the William Prescott Professor of Animal Science at theUniversity of Liverpool.She is Head of Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution.[2][1]She studies scent communication between mammals, as well asanimal welfareand pest control. She served as the president of theAssociation for the Study of Animal Behaviourfrom 2010 to 2012.

Early life and education

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Hurst earned her bachelor's degree in science at theUniversity of Birmingham.[3]She was inspired to studybehavioural ecologyafter readingMice All Overby Peter Crowcroft.[4]She earned herPhDin 1984 on thebehavioural ecologyof the house mouseMus domesticus.[5]Hurst became inspired after discovering Peter Crowcroft's book "Mice All Over".[6]During her PhD she watched wild mice in agricultural buildings, studying their social organisation and ability to live at such highpopulation densities.[4]

Research and career

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Hurst joined theUniversity of Nottinghamas apostdoctoral researcherin 1985, obtained aScience and Engineering Research Council(SERC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from 1986 to 1988, a SERC Advanced Fellowship from 1989 to 1984 and anAgricultural and Food Research Council(AFRC)/BBSRCAdvanced Fellowship from 1994 to 1998.[3]Hurst works on the mechanisms and evolution ofscent communicationin animals.[3]She is interested in the roles ofvolatileand non-volatilescents.[3]She was appointed the William Prescott Professor of Animal Science at theUniversity of Liverpoolin 1998[3]and Head of Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution Group.[3]

Her main research interests are in the chemobiology of competitive signalling in mammals.[7]Hurst became interested in the signals that determine animalmate choice.[4]She is interested in how scents are used in sexual communications.[3]She demonstrated that the quality of an animal'sodourdetermines the chances that it will be selected as a mate.[8][9]She found that female mice prefer to nest with their sisters, irrespective of whether they knew each other before.[10]Specifically, female house mice prefer partners that share their ownmajor urinary proteingenotype.[10]In the absence of this phenotype match, females preferred partners with whom they share multiple-loci across thegenome.[10]

Hurst identified a non-volatilepheromonethat was released in male urine that female mice find highly attractive.[4][11]She went on to find that thispheromonewas amajor urinary protein(MUP20), which she nameddarcinafterMr DarcyinJane Austen's novelPride and Prejudice.[4]Hurst went on to establish that this pheromone could stimulate both short and long-term learning and that darcin and other major urinary proteins influence the odour signature that female mice learn.[4]She also showed that darcin increasedneurogenesisin theolfactory bulband hippocampus.[12]and has been involved with work that has identified a genetically determined circuit extending from the accessoryolfactory bulbto the posterior medialamygdalamediating all behavioural responses to darcin.[13]Hurst found that female mice are more attracted to male mice with their own territory.[8]She found that darcin and othermajor urinary proteinsinfluence the odour signature that female mice learn.[14]She edited volume 11 of Chemical Signals in Vertebrates that followed a conference of the same name in Chester, UK.[15]For her work on scent communication, Hurst was awarded the Zoological Society of London Frink Medal in 2023.

Professor Jane Hurst, William Prescott Professor of Animal Science

Her research is directed in part to the development of humane control of rodent pests.[3][16]She also identified non-aversive handling methods that would reduce anxiety in mice, allowing them to be more reliable in laboratory tests.[17][18]Hurst developed the use of mouse-friendly handling tunnels, reducing their anxiety and allowing them to explore more during animal testing.[19][20]Hurst is also interested in how animals can detect scent-cues of ill-health and disease.[3]] For this work, she was awarded the NC3Rs prize in 2010. Hurst is also interested in how animals can detect scent-cues of ill-health and disease.[21]

In 2010 Hurst was appointed President for theAssociation for the Study of Animal Behaviour(ASAB).[3]She has supported theBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council(BBSRC) from 2000 – 2019 by serving on grant funding and strategy advisory panels, Appointments Board, and chaired the BBSRC Animal Welfare Programme steering committee.[22]She has supported the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research since its inception, including a founding member of the NC3Rs Board and grant funding panel (2004-2010). She has served on the Council for the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW, 1996-2002), on theRoyal SocietyUse of Animals in Research committee (2004-2009) and the Ethical committee for ASAB (1991-1999, chair from 1995). Hurst has been involved with several studies to improve connections between researchers in the animal welfare community.[23]Hurst discussed herpheromoneresearch onIn Our Timein 2019.[24]In 2021 she was the guest on an episode of theBBC Radio 4programme,The Life Scientific.[25]

Awards and honours

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Her awards and honours include:

She was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire(OBE) in the2020 New Year Honoursfor services to animal welfare.[30][31]

References

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  1. ^abJane Hurstpublications indexed byGoogle ScholarEdit this at Wikidata
  2. ^Jane Hurstpublications fromEurope PubMed Central
  3. ^abcdefghij"Jane Hurst".liverpool.ac.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 2019-01-07.Retrieved2019-02-22.
  4. ^abcdefHurst, Jane (2018)."Communicating through scents: an interview with Jane Hurst".BMC Biology.16(1): 126.doi:10.1186/s12915-018-0596-2.ISSN1741-7007.PMC6211507.PMID30382918.
  5. ^Hurst, Jane Louise (1984).The behavioural ecology of the house mouse (mus domesticus).jisc.ac.uk(PhD thesis). University of Birmingham.OCLC744524984.Copac45390636.Archived fromthe originalon 2019-02-23.Retrieved2019-02-23.
  6. ^Hurst, Jane (2018-11-01)."Communicating through scents: an interview with Jane Hurst".BMC Biology.16(1): 126.doi:10.1186/s12915-018-0596-2.ISSN1741-7007.PMC6211507.PMID30382918.
  7. ^Hurst, Jane L.; Beynon, Robert J. (2004). "Scent wars: the chemobiology of competitive signalling in mice".BioEssays.26(12): 1288–1298.doi:10.1002/bies.20147.ISSN0265-9247.PMID15551272.S2CID23550297.
  8. ^abRich, Tracey J; Hurst, Jane L (1998). "Scent marks as reliable signals of the competitive ability of mates".Animal Behaviour.56(3): 727–735.doi:10.1006/anbe.1998.0803.ISSN0003-3472.PMID9784223.S2CID26561908.
  9. ^Stockley, P.; Bottell, L.; Hurst, J. L. (2013)."Wake up and smell the conflict: odour signals in female competition".Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.368(1631).Royal Society:20130082.doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0082.ISSN0962-8436.PMC3826211.PMID24167312.
  10. ^abcHurst, Jane L.; Beynon, Robert J.; Stockley, Paula; Paterson, Steve; Davidson, Amanda J.; Holmes, Andrew M.; Green, Jonathan P. (2015)."The Genetic Basis of Kin Recognition in a Cooperatively Breeding Mammal".Current Biology.25(20): 2631–2641.doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.045.ISSN0960-9822.PMID26412134.
  11. ^"Smell You Later: Scientists Reveal How Mice Recognize Each Other".sciencedaily.com.Retrieved2019-02-22.
  12. ^Hoffman, Emma; Pickavance, Lucy; Thippeswamy, Thimmasettappa; Beynon, Robert J.; Hurst, Jane L. (2015)."The male sex pheromone darcin stimulates hippocampal neurogenesis and cell proliferation in the subventricular zone in female mice".Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.9:106.doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00106.ISSN1662-5153.PMC4413791.PMID25972792.
  13. ^Demir, Ebru; Li, Kenneth; Bobrowski-Khoury, Natasha; Sanders, Joshua I.; Beynon, Robert J.; Hurst, Jane L.; Kepecs, Adam; Axel, Richard (2020-01-29)."The pheromone darcin drives a circuit for innate and reinforced behaviours".Nature.578(7793): 137–141.Bibcode:2020Natur.578..137D.doi:10.1038/s41586-020-1967-8.ISSN0028-0836.PMID31996852.S2CID210948445.
  14. ^Roberts, Sarah A.; Prescott, Mark C.; Davidson, Amanda J.; McLean, Lynn; Beynon, Robert J.; Hurst, Jane L. (2018)."Individual odour signatures that mice learn are shaped by involatile major urinary proteins (MUPs)".BMC Biology.16(1): 48.doi:10.1186/s12915-018-0512-9.ISSN1741-7007.PMC5921788.PMID29703213.
  15. ^Hurst, Jane Louise (2011).Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 11.Springer.ISBN9780387739441.OCLC751582986.
  16. ^Weaver, Janelle (2010-09-12). "Getting a better grip on lab mice".Nature.doi:10.1038/news.2010.462.ISSN0028-0836.
  17. ^Hurst, Jane L; West, Rebecca S (2010). "Taming anxiety in laboratory mice".Nature Methods.7(10): 825–826.doi:10.1038/nmeth.1500.ISSN1548-7091.PMID20835246.S2CID6525713.Closed access icon
  18. ^Jane L. Hurst; Gouveia, Kelly (2017)."Optimising reliability of mouse performance in behavioural testing: the major role of non-aversive handling".Scientific Reports.7:44999.Bibcode:2017NatSR...744999G.doi:10.1038/srep44999.ISSN2045-2322.PMC5359560.PMID28322308.
  19. ^"Results of mouse studies affected by the way the animals are handled | NC3Rs".nc3rs.org.uk.Retrieved2019-02-22.
  20. ^Looi, Mun-Keat (2011)."Scientist wins prize for improving welfare of lab mice".blog.wellcome.ac.uk.Wellcome Trust.Archived fromthe originalon 2019-02-23.Retrieved2019-02-22.
  21. ^ab"3Rs Prize winners | NC3Rs".www.nc3rs.org.uk.Retrieved2019-02-22.
  22. ^"BBSRC - Delivering Excellence with Impact"(PDF).Retrieved2019-02-22.
  23. ^Turnbull, James; Statham, Poppy T. E.; Lawrence, Alistair; Hurst, Jane; Green, Laura E.; Flecknell, Paul; Davies, Anna C.; Collins, Lisa; Bennett, Richard (2016)."Enhancing collaboration in the UK animal welfare research community"(PDF).Veterinary Record.178(6): 138–139.doi:10.1136/vr.i682.ISSN0042-4900.PMID26851102.S2CID207049093.
  24. ^"BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Pheromones".bbc.co.uk.BBC.Retrieved2019-02-22.
  25. ^"BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific, Jane Hurst on the secret life of mice".BBC.
  26. ^"ASAB Medal".ASAB.Retrieved2019-02-22.
  27. ^"Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association (SGV)".naturalsciences.ch.Retrieved2019-12-15.
  28. ^Frost, Nicola (2022-04-13)."Professor Jane Hurst recognised for outstanding contribution to animal welfare - University of Liverpool News".News.Retrieved2022-08-05.
  29. ^"Prestigious awards honour stars of conservation science | ZSL".www.zsl.org.Retrieved2024-01-14.
  30. ^"No. 62866".The London Gazette(Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N12.
  31. ^"Order of the British Empire",Wikipedia,2019-12-28,retrieved2019-12-28
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