Jane Hurst

Hurst earned her bachelor's degree in science at the University of Birmingham.[3] She was inspired to study behavioural ecology after reading Mice All Over by Peter Crowcroft.[4] She earned her PhD in 1984 on the behavioural ecology of the house mouse Mus domesticus.[5] During her PhD she watched wild mice in agricultural buildings, studying their social organisation and ability to live at such high population densities.[4]

Hurst joined the University of Nottingham as a postdoctoral researcher in 1985, obtained a Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from 1986 to 1988, a SERC Advanced Fellowship from 1989 to 1984 and an Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC)/BBSRC Advanced Fellowship from 1994 to 1998.[3] Hurst works on the mechanisms and evolution of scent communication in animals.[3] She is interested in the roles of volatile and non-volatile scents.[3] She was appointed the William Prescott Professor of Animal Science at the University of Liverpool in 1998[3] and Head of Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution Group.[3]

Her main research interests are in the chemobiology of competitive signalling in mammals.[6] Hurst became interested in the signals that determine animal mate choice.[4] She is interested in how scents are used in sexual communications.[3] She demonstrated that the quality of an animal's odour determines the chances that it will be selected as a mate.[7][8] She found that female mice prefer to nest with their sisters, irrespective of whether they knew each other before.[9] Specifically, female house mice prefer partners that share their own major urinary protein genotype.[9] In the absence of this phenotype match, females preferred partners with whom they share multiple-loci across the genome.[9]

Hurst identified a non-volatile pheromone that was released in male urine that female mice find highly attractive.[4][10] She went on to find that this pheromone was a major urinary proteins (MUP20), which she called darcin named after Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's novel Pride 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 increased neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb and hippocampus.[11] and has been involved with work that has identified a genetically determined circuit-extending from the accessory olfactory bulb to the posterior medial amygdala mediating all behavioural responses to darcin.[12] She found that female mice are more attracted to male mice with their own territory.[7] She found that darcin and other major urinary proteins influence the odour signature that female mice learn.[13] She edited volume 11 of Chemical Signals in Vertebrates that followed a conference of the same name in Chester, UK.[14]

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][15] She also identified non-aversive handling methods that would reduce anxiety in mice, allowing them to be more reliable in laboratory tests.[16][17] Hurst developed the use of mouse-friendly handling tunnels, reducing their anxiety and allowing them to explore more during animal testing.[18][19] 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.[20]

In 2010 Hurst was appointed President for the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB).[3] She has supported the Biotechnology 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.[21] 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 the Royal Society Use 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.[22] Hurst discussed her pheromone research on In Our Time in 2019.[23]

Her awards and honours include:

• 2017 ASAB Medal from the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour[24]
• 2010 National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research 3Rs Prize[20]
• 2019 Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association Prize for Refinement[25]

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to animal welfare.[26][27]