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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Blossoming of Bioinspired Supramolecular Architectures: Towards Applications in Catalysis, Drug Delivery and Materials Science

Recipient(s): Professor CG Hartinger | PI | The University of Auckland
Associate Professor JD Crowley | PI | University of Otago
Professor LJ Wright | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Nature exploits stimuli-responsive materials and supramolecular forces to control the assembly of molecules into living organisms, including shaping DNA strands into the double helix structure and building the membrane of every cell. Borrowing this concept from biology, we have designed specific supramolecular containers that can open and close reversibly in a controlled manner – just like the petals of a flower in sunlight. These supramolecular flowering structures will be assembled from two different metal centres that are connected by bridging petal ligands. The petals will be opened and closed reversibly by external stimuli, such as redox processes, pH change or light. The structural changes of the supramolecular flowers will be exploited to turn on (and off) catalytic processes or bind and release selected molecules including drugs targeted to tumour tissue. The development of these new switchable bio-inspired supramolecular architectures will open the way for new applications in catalysis, drug development and materials science.

Total Awarded: $910,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Professor CG Hartinger

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 17-UOA-168


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: Bones under pressure. How does the skeleton sense gravity?

Recipient(s): Professor SP Robertson | PI | University of Otago
Dr SS Ithychanda | AI | Case Western Reserve University

Public Summary: The human skeleton responds to force and movement by building stronger bone. How these forces are sensed at a cellular level and translated into a biochemical response that results in stronger bones is unclear. We have discovered that mutations in two genes subvert this mechanism resulting in excessive bone formation indicating that they connect to form this biological mechanosensor. Using genetic, animal model and biochemical approaches we will describe the architecture of this force transducing apparatus that is key for the maintenance of bone health over the lifespan.

Total Awarded: $825,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Professor SP Robertson

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 16-UOO-071


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Born at the right time? Disentangling the effects of birthdate and developmental trajectories on fitness, population dynamics, and the evolution of life-history strategies

Recipient(s): Associate Professor JS Shima | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Associate Professor EG Noonburg | AI | Florida Atlantic University
Associate Professor SE Swearer | AI | University Of Melbourne
Professor CW Osenberg | AI | University of Georgia
Professor SH Alonzo | AI | Yale University

Public Summary: Biology is the story of winners and losers; winners survive better, produce more offspring, and thus differentially contribute to population growth. Are winners simply born 'lucky' or do they 'play their cards well'? Like any game, timing is paramount--winners may be born at the right time. Indeed, in the face of uncertainty, parents can spread out reproductive timing, but this bet-hedging will stack the deck in favour of some offspring. Are fates set by parents, or can offspring improve upon the cards they've been dealt? Our work investigates the roles of parental investment, birth timing, and developmental progression as determinants of fitness components. We focus on a species of reef fish that spawns frequently to produce offspring that navigate a series of demographic bottlenecks with fitness consequences. We integrate a longitudinal study, field experiments, and demographic reconstructions of individual life histories from otoliths ('ear bones') to determine whether parental or offspring 'decisions' canalise the fates of individuals. We develop a novel modelling framework to explore ecological and evolutionary feedbacks between parent- and offspring decision-making, to better-understand the origin and maintenance of life-history strategies that help shape the diversity of life on our planet.

Total Awarded: $840,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Associate Professor JS Shima

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 15-VUW-028


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Borrowing from nature’s library: fundamental insights into molecular recognition by chemoreceptors

Recipient(s): Dr ML Gerth | PI | University of Otago
Professor GB Jameson | AI | Massey University

Public Summary: Linus Pauling once remarked that “the secret of life is molecular recognition; the ability of one molecule to ‘recognize’ another through weak bonding interactions.” Understanding the high-specificity, high-affinity recognition of ligands by proteins remains a fundamental challenge in biochemistry. The ligand binding domains (LBDs) of bacterial chemoreceptor proteins are excellent models for addressing this challenge. Genome sequencing has revealed thousands of LBDs in bacterial chemotaxis systems, however only a handful have been characterised. We will use a new and generalisable high-throughput screen to identify to characterise the complete LBD repertoire of Psa – a plant pathogen with a complex chemosensory system. By combining biochemical and structural characterisation of selected LBDs, we will gain atomic-level insights into the basis of their exquisite recognition. Furthermore, we will use directed evolution – which mimics and accelerates evolution in vitro – to explore the routes by which recognition of new chemicals can emerge in nature. Together, these experiments will improve our understanding of how proteins selectively bind ligands, and how this process evolves. Ultimately, this will enable the design of new binding proteins that are specific for ligands of choice, which will have wide-ranging applications in biosensor development, targeted therapeutics, and synthetic biology.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr ML Gerth

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 14-UOO-239


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Brain asymmetries for gesture and speech

Recipient(s): Prof MC Corballis | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Since at least the 1970s, the association between right-handedness and the left-cerebral control of speech has been taken as evidence that language evolved from manual gestures. The gestural theory has been expanded to include facial gesture as a transitional phase, with language having evolved from a primate system dedicated to manual grasping, gradually incorporating communicative manual and facial gestures, and culminating in speech (vocal gestures). These processes became increasingly lateralized in the course of hominin evolution. We now know too that handedness itself is a poor measure of cerebral asymmetry for manual action. In the first large-scale study of its kind, we will use fMRI-based measures of cerebral asymmetries for manual action, facial movements, and speech, to test the hypothesis that they are intercorrelated, as predicted from gestural theory. We include equal numbers of left- and right-handers, because genetic models suggest that genetic control of asymmetry is expressed in some but not all individuals, implying that the correlations should be stronger in right- than in left-handers. Whether or not the results support our predictions, the research will add to our understanding of cerebral asymmetry—its dimensionality, genetic basis, and implications for evolution.

Total Awarded: $660,870

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Prof MC Corballis

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 12-UOA-158


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: Brain inspired on-chip computation using self-assembled nanoparticles

Recipient(s): Dr SK Bose | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor SA Brown | AI | University of Canterbury

Public Summary: Miniaturisation of components has led to massive improvements in the processing power of computer chips, but fundamental size limitations are hindering further developments. The biological brain on the other hand can perform highly complex computational tasks like navigation and pattern recognition with remarkable ease using a set of interconnected biological neurons. This is the motivation for the development of ‘brain-inspired’ architectures for computer chips, which promise faster, highly parallel information processing with massively lower energy consumption.
Recent advances in such software and hardware emulation of the brain structure have achieved substantial success, although both approaches suffer from similar limitations to conventional computer chips. In this project, we propose an alternative novel approach based on the self-assembly of nanoparticles whose structures are intrinsically similar to neural and synaptic structures in the brain. We will utilize our experience in performing unconventional computation using nanomaterials and our recently patented device fabrication techniques to implement real-time, on-chip neuromorphic computation. We will focus on developing a fundamental understanding of the underlying atomic-scale switching mechanisms in order to develop simple pattern recognition capabilities and position us to achieve more advanced computation and classification tasks in the future.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Dr SK Bose

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 16-UOC-057


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Brain mechanisms of self control

Recipient(s): Prof DK Bilkey | PI | University of Otago
Dr KL Hillman | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Self-control underlies a range of human behaviour, from saving for retirement to saving the planet. The construct is so influential that it appears across a host of disciplines, variously termed as impulsivity, self-regulation, delay of gratification, willpower and inter-temporal choice. It has become a focus of study in recent years, not least because childhood self-control appears to predict physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offending outcomes in adulthood (1). This project examines one of the brain mechanisms underlying self-control, in particular that involved when access to an easily available reward is rejected in favour of an ultimately more valuable option that might require effort or patience to attain. We will use an animal model that allows us to study the activity of brain cells during behaviour and investigate how the brain uses prospective memory to modulate self-control. This study builds on our novel pilot data that shows how the communication of information from the prefrontal cortex to the hippocampus is important for this process. The outcome of this study will be of significant importance as it will provide new insights into one of the brain processes that supports self-control, and how this operates during decision-making.

Total Awarded: $695,652

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Prof DK Bilkey

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 12-UOO-050


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Brauer groups, degrees and rational points on algebraic varieties

Recipient(s): Dr BM Creutz | PI | University of Canterbury
Dr BL Viray | AI | University of Washington

Public Summary: The study of rational solutions to polynomial equations is as old as mathematics itself, yet much remains unknown. To this day new discoveries continue to lead to major advances in both mathematics and its applications to cryptography and the transmission of information on noisy channels. This project does not focus on these applications, but rather the mathematical foundations that underlie them.

This research is motivated by the problem of understanding how the existence of rational solutions to a system of polynomial equations may be influenced by the geometric and arithmetic properties of the algebraic variety defined by that system. For many important classes of varieties it is conjectured that these properties are encoded in an object associated to the variety known as the Brauer group. However, a general understanding of this group and how this information can be extracted from it are lacking.

The aim of this research is to identify proper subgroups of the Brauer group that capture this information, thereby ellucidating its effect on the existence of rational points on algebraic varieties. The outcomes of this research will have practical applications to solving of systems of polynomial equations algorithmically.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Dr BM Creutz

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 17-UOC-079


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Breaking the mould: a novel mechanism of hyphal growth in fungal symbionts of grasses

Recipient(s): Dr CR Voisey | PI | AgResearch
Professor NAR Gow | PI | University of Aberdeen
Professor ND Read | PI | University of Edinburgh
Dr R Bradshaw | AI | Massey University
Dr DP Harland | AI | AgResearch
Dr RD Johnson | AI | AgResearch

Public Summary: A previously unquestioned characteristic of fungal hyphae is that they grow exclusively through apical extension. Recently we demonstrated an entirely new mechanism of growth, intercalary division, which has stimulated intense international interest. Our objective is to elucidate the molecular processes underpinning intercalary hyphal growth. Powerful new live imaging techniques, imported through international collaborators, will be used to track progression of vesicles and calcium along the cytoskeleton, and hyphal growth mutants differentially expressing proteins involved in the cell cycle and polarised growth will be functionally characterised. We aim to provide the first supporting evidence describing this emerging mechanism of regulated growth.

Total Awarded: $733,333

Duration: 3

Host: AgResearch

Contact Person: Dr CR Voisey

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 09-AGR-029


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: Bridging the 50 Å ubiquitin gap

Recipient(s): Dr CL Day | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: All apoptotic pathways eventually result in activation of caspases that destroy cells. In healthy cells caspases are present as inactive zymogens, and both the presence of pro-apoptotic molecules and the removal of inhibitory molecules is required for their activation. Caspase-8/10-associated RING proteins (CARPs) keep caspases of the death-receptor pathway in check and they are often at higher levels in tumours. To elucidate the molecular basis of caspase inhibition by CARPs, we will determine how CARPs interact with caspases-8 and -10, and discover how CARPs mediate the specific transfer of ubiquitin to target lysine residues.

Total Awarded: $724,444

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr CL Day

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 08-UOO-076


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