Bronwen Connor

Bronwen Jane Connor is a New Zealand academic. She is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Auckland, where she is head of the Neural Reprogramming and Repair Lab.

Academic career
Connor's father has degrees in engineering and physics, and so she "grew up in a house with science". She had originally planned to major in exercise science at university, due to her love of rowing, but became hooked on neurology. Connor completed a Bachelor of Science in pharmacology and physiology in 1994. She followed this with a PhD titled The role of neurotrophic factors in neurodegenerative disorders of the human brain at the University of Auckland. Connor then undertook postdoctoral research at Northwestern University in Chicago, where she investigated gene therapy for Parkinson's disease. She joined the faculty at the University of Auckland in 2000, rising to full professor in 2019.

Connor researches neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke and depression. Her work focuses on identifying the pathways through which the diseases develop, and trying to identify therapeutic targets for stem cell therapy or gene therapy. Connor's work has pioneered the transformation of a patient's own adult skin cells into neural stem cells, which can then be used in treatment without the risk of immune rejection.

Honours and awards
In 2013, Connor was awarded the NEXT Woman of the Year Health and Science Award.

In the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours, Connor was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the treatment of neurological disorders.

Selected works

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