Spanswick
Laboratory
Obesity and Metabolic
Neurophysiology
Welcome to the Spanswick Lab
Brain areas dedicated to controlling food intake and body weight include aspects of the hypothalamus, key centres for sensing, integrating and formulating appropriate behavioural responses to changes in energy status and the hedonic, reward based neural circuits.
We're part of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, and a member of the Metabolism, Diabetes & Obesity and Neuroscience Programs, and the Department of Physiology.
Professor David Spanswick
Adjunct and translational research fellow
My global research connections, partners and funding can be viewed on my Monash Research Profile.
Click the links below to connect with me on ORCID, Google Scholar and LinkedIn.
Our research
One nutrient that is controlled and maintained within narrow limits is glucose. Glucose levels are maintained by a network of interacting peripheral and central glucose-sensing systems. Consequently understanding the fundamental mechanisms by which function-specific glucose-sensing neurons and networks detect, respond and formulate appropriate output and if and how they are subject to dysfunction in obesity and diabetes is critical to developing future intervention strategies. We employ an electrophysiological approach to identify mechanisms by which function-specific neurones and circuits detect changes in energy status to co-ordinate appropriate behavioural responses and how they change depending on the energy status of the organism.
Lab members
We are committed to excellence in research.
Join Our Lab
We're always interested in collaborating with bright and motivated researchers, clinicians and industry. Whether you want to research, study or partner with us to accelerate our discoveries, find out about the work we do.