Mary Fenner Dallman

Mary Fenner Dallman (born April 11, 1935) is an American neuroendocrinologist. She is now professor emerita at University of California, San Francisco,[1] where she was the first tenure-track female faculty member in the Department of Physiology and worked for 38 years before retiring in 2007. She is known for her elucidation of along the hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal axis, and the discovery that comfort foods dampen the stress response.[2]

Life

Mary Dallman has three children with her husband Peter Dallman, a professor of pediatric medicine at UCSF.

Career

Dallman received her bachelor's degree in Chemistry[3] from Smith College (1956) and completed her Ph.D. in Physiology at Stanford University in the laboratory of F. Eugene Yates (1967). Dallman then pursued two post-doctoral training stints, the first in Neuroscience in Stockholm, Sweden with Bengt Andersson and the second at UCSF in Neuroendocrinology with William Francis Ganong. She stayed on at UCSF thereafter, hired first as a lecturer for two years, before establishing her own lab as an assistant professor (1972), rising to full professor and serving as vice chair of the department for fourteen years. She is now professor emerita at University of California, San Francisco,[1] where she was the first tenure-track female faculty member in the Department of Physiology and worked for 38 years before retiring in 2007.

She is known for her elucidation of function along the hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal axis, and the discovery that comfort foods dampen the stress response.[2] Her lab explored the role of glucocorticoid feedback on the HPA axis,[4][5] showing that there is a very fast (seconds-minutes) inhibitory effect,[6] and that sufficiently intense stimuli to the stress-response system use central networks that appear to bypass central glucocorticoid inhibition of subsequent system activity.[7] The lab also provided evidence that efferent adrenal nerves regulate both compensatory adrenal growth after unilateral adrenalectomy,[8] and the diurnal rhythm in adrenocortical sensitivity to ACTH secretion.[9] The finding that body weight, fat content, and activity in the HPA axis are tightly correlated,[10] initiated subsequent studies that ultimately showed that only voluntary intake of lard inhibits adrenocortical responses to subsequent stressors.[11]

Recognition

Dallman has been recognized for her contributions in many ways:[12]

  • 1996-1998 International Society of Neuroendocrinology, President
  • 1997-2002 Editorial Boards Endocrinology, J. Neuroscience, Stress. Molec. Psychiatry.
  • 2003-2007 Receiving Editor Endocrinology; NIH workshops (Perimenopause; drug abuse; Alzheimer's Disease) and working group (Stress & CVD)
  • 2011-2014 Editorial Board, Endocrinology
  • 1980-2007 Member of 3 NIH PRGs – Endocrinology; NNB; DK Fellowships, K-awards.
  • 2003 ISPNE Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 2006 Muldoon Memorial Lectureship
  • 2007 Selye Lectureship
  • 2010 Marianne Blum Lectureship, Austin TX
  • 2010 Soc Study Ingestive Behavior Distinguished Scientist Award
  • 2015 Kavli Foundation Lecture to the Society for Neuroscience, Chicago

References
  1. "Our Team | Next Mission". nextmission.ucsf.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  2. "Comfort Food May Be "Self-Medication" for Stress, Dialing Down Stress Response". UC San Francisco. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  3. "The Biology of Fat (or Why Literally Running Away from Stress Is a Good Idea)". UC San Francisco. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  4. "Regulation of ACTH secretion: variations on a theme of B. Recent Prog Horm Res". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "Dallman MF, Akana SF, Bhatnagar S., Bell ME, Strack AM: Bottomed out: metabolic significance of the circadian trough in glucocorticoid concentrations, Int J Obesity, 24, 2000, Suppl.2, S40-S46". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. "Corticosterone-induced changes in hypothalamic corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) content after stress". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. "Interaction between stimulus intensity and corticosteroid feedback in control of ACTH". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. "Compensatory adrenal growth: a neurally mediated reflex". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. "Nycthemeral rhythm in adrenal responsiveness to ACTH". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. "Corticosterone: narrow range required for normal body and thymus weight and ACTH". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. "Choice of lard, but not total lard calories, damps ACTH responses to restraint". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. Wood, Charles (28 Nov 2012). "When lab leaders take too much control". Nature. 491: 785. doi:10.1038/nj7426-785a.
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