Holly Brown-Borg, PhD

AREAS OF SPECIALTY:

  • Growth factors and longevity

  • Metabolism and aging

  • Endocrinology and aging

Holly M. Brown-Borg, PhD

Holly Brown-Borg received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Ph.D. North Carolina State University in Raleigh. She completed postdoctoral fellowships as an ARS Research Associate at the USDA Meat Animal Research Center and as a Research Associate in the Department of Physiology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.  Dr. Brown-Borg is a UND Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences. She is the Assistant Dean for Gender Equity at UND SMHS (2021-present). She has chaired/organized many meetings including the 2007 Biology of Aging Gordon Research Conference, 2018 Keystone Conference on Aging, and Chairs the International Symposium on Neurobiology & Neuroendocrinology of Aging in Austria (2010-2024). She serves on the Board of AGE (American Aging Association) and recently completed terms on the FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology-2019-2023) and the GSA (Gerontological Society of America; 2023) boards.

She has a broad understanding of the aging field, specific expertise in areas listed below and extensive exposure to numerous programs and proposals in the aging research arena. Her research expertise in aging lies in the areas of endocrinology, stress resistance, and metabolism. Her predoctoral and post-doctoral research projects were designed to gain a better understanding of the impact of the neuroendocrine system on immune responses. Research interests shifted towards aging when the lab discovered that GH deficiency significantly extended lifespan in mice. Current work focuses on growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor signaling pathways and their impact on metabolism, mitochondrial function and age-related disease. Her laboratory has shown that the unique physiology attributed to growth hormone deficiency in mice leads to health and lifespan extension. Recent translational projects are directed at understanding susceptibility and resistance to disease specifically neurodegenerative disease and hepatosteatosis as well as understanding factors that contribute to frailty.