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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: How does fertility factor BMP15 regulate the ovulation quota in mammals?

Recipient(s): Prof KP McNatty | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr J McIntosh | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr JL Juengel | AI | AgResearch
Prof O Ritvos | AI | University of Helsinki

Public Summary: The molecular mechanisms regulating the number of eggs (oocytes) released at ovulation (ovulation quota) in different mammalian species is a major unanswered question in reproductive biology. Our recent discoveries show that the oocyte itself plays a major role in regulating ovulation quota and that the oocyte-secreted proteins bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) and growth and differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) are potentially the key regulatory factors. Here, we propose to test the hypothesis that the ovulation quota is determined during ovarian follicular development by cooperative interactions between BMP15 and GDF9 that are species-specific and involve the proregion of BMP15.

Total Awarded: $800,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Prof KP McNatty

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 08-VUW-010


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: How does secreted amyloid precursor protein alpha enhance memory mechanisms?

Recipient(s): Prof W Tate | PI | University of Otago
Dr JM Williams | PI | University of Otago
Dr MM Ryan | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: In exciting new studies we have shown that secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha (sAPPalpha) can enhance memory mechanisms and protect against memory loss in whole animals. To understand how sAPPalpha protects nerve cells we will (i) identify its cell surface receptor (ii) discover which proteins are synthesised at the nerve cell connections in response to sAPPalpha, and (iii) in the whole animal determine the pathways of genes responsible for transducing the sAPPalpha signal into long-lasting changes in the brain. sAPPalpha may protect nerve cells naturally and potentially therapeutically against the destructive effects of a toxic peptide linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Total Awarded: $771,556

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Prof W Tate

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 08-UOO-148


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: How does the Earth stop global warming? Testing climate stabilisation during ‘hyperthermal’ events

Recipient(s): Associate Professor CH Stirling | PI | University of Otago
Dr MO Clarkson | AI | ETH Zürich
Professor GR Dickens | AI | Rice University
Professor TM Lenton | AI | University of Exeter
Dr DR Porcelli | AI | University of Oxford

Public Summary: The Earth is in the midst of a climate crisis, with a carbon cycle disturbance comparable to those that drove biological turnover and even mass-extinction events in geological history. The side-effects of warmer global temperatures are already occurring, including ocean acidification, toxic phytoplankton blooms, and expansions of oxygen deprived conditions in the oceans. It is less well known that these threats are also negative feedback mechanisms which remove carbon from the atmosphere, and eventually re-stabilise the climate on geological timescales. The climate recovery process, however, is poorly constrained, and it is not known exactly when or how the natural climate system will return to ‘normal’. Anthropogenic activity might have even delayed the next natural glaciation cycle. We will use novel geochemical proxies and biogeochemical modelling to trace the action of negative feedback mechanisms during past global warming events. These will be applied to a series of events that represent a range of CO2 emission scenarios, analogous to those we face in the future. We will constrain the feedback mechanisms of the climate system to better understand the lifespan of human-induced climate change, providing crucial boundary conditions for modelling future climate scenarios.

Total Awarded: $960,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Associate Professor CH Stirling

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 17-UOO-131


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: How does the Earth stop Global Warming? Testing climate stabilisation during ‘hyperthermal’ events.

Recipient(s): Dr MO Clarkson | PI | University of Otago
Professor GR Dickens | AI | Rice University, Texas
Professor SA Kasemann | AI | University of Bremen
Associate Professor CH Stirling | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: The Earth is in the midst of a climate crisis, with a carbon cycle disturbance comparable to those that drove biological turnover and even mass-extinction events in geological history. The side-effects of warmer global temperatures are already occurring, including ocean acidification, toxic phytoplankton blooms, and expansions of oxygen deprived conditions in the oceans. It is less well known that these threats are also negative feedback mechanisms which remove carbon from the atmosphere, and eventually re-stabilise the climate on geological timescales. The climate recovery process, however, is poorly constrained, and it is not known exactly when or how the natural climate system will return to ‘normal’. Anthropogenic activity might have even delayed the next natural glaciation cycle. We will use novel geochemical proxies to trace the action of negative feedback mechanisms during periods of past global warming. These will be applied to a series of events that represent a range of CO2 emission scenarios, analogous to those we face in the future. We will constrain the feedback mechanisms of the climate system to better understand the lifespan of human-induced climate change, providing crucial boundary conditions for modelling future climate scenarios.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr MO Clarkson

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 16-UOO-110


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: How does the heart grow?

Recipient(s): Prof PJ Hunter | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof S Bhattacharya | AI | University of Oxford

Public Summary: Organs grow within the embryo and developing fetus in response to genes being turned on at specific times and in specific locations. The control of gene expression is guided both by gene developmental programmes and by the changing physical environment of the growing organ. The mechanisms by which the physiological environment controls gene expression have been little studied and represent a very exciting field that requires the collaboration of molecular biologists, physiologists and bioengineers.

This project builds on world-leading cardiac research in the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at Auckland University and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University to understand how hearts grow, using the developing mouse heart as a model. While the immediate goal is to test the hypothesis that interactions between cell proliferation, cytoskeletal reorganisation and shear stress play a role in the looping period in the formation of the mouse heart, the experimental techniques and models described here provide a foundation that can later be extended to other stages in the development of the heart and other organs. The techniques developed in this study will thus contribute to the understanding of phenotypic consequences of environmental influence on gene expression in the development of all organs.

Total Awarded: $791,304

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Prof PJ Hunter

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 12-UOA-166


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: How does the molecular clock tick along genomes?

Recipient(s): Dr S Guindon | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: The rate at which mutations accumulate within biological sequences varies extensively during the course of evolution. Probabilistic models of molecular evolution provide efficient tools to study this time and lineage-dependent heterogeneity. However, current approaches focus on individual markers, i.e., sequences from one gene collected from a set of species. Hence, the variability of rates has only been measured at the gene level so far and the scale at which this heterogeneity arises has been largely ignored. This project will tackle the variability of rates at the genome level in order to determine whether this phenomenon is gene or genome-specific.

Total Awarded: $219,780

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr S Guindon

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 08-UOA-068


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: How great can we be? Identity leaders of the Maori economic renaissance

Recipient(s): Dr CA Houkamau | PI | The University of Auckland
Associate Professor CG Sibley | AI | The University of Auckland
Associate Professor MA Henare | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: One of the most topical questions facing contemporary Maori and New Zealand society is: how can we foster Maori entrepreneurial behaviour and economic savvy? To date there have been no large-scale quantitative investigations carried out on a representative sample of Maori to ascertain the specific economic values, choices, beliefs and behaviours they have and how those may be shaped by variations in their personal perceptions of what it means to be Maori. Our study will fill this gap by using qualitative interviews with Maori iwi and business leaders to identify the distinctive economic norms, values, behaviours, and attitudes that constitute Maori success as Maori. These data will then be used to develop a measure of Maori economic behaviour and values. This novel scale will be administered via a questionnaire to a large-scale, nationally-representative sample of 5000 Maori. Our research combines qualitative/interview data with a large-scale national sample to statistically identify the factors that promote or act as barriers to Maori entrepreneurial behaviour and economic success. In addition, we will develop and act as custodians of our large national sample so that it may be used by future generations of Maori researchers.

Total Awarded: $565,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr CA Houkamau

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 15-UOA-316


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: How have the world's youngest ultra-deep (high-pressure) rocks arrived at the Earth's surface?

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof TA Little | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr LM Wallace | PI | GNS Science
Prof L Baldwin | AI | Syracuse University
Dr S Ellis | AI | GNS Science
Prof R Hacker | AI | University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr P Tregoning | AI | Australian National University

Public Summary: In the Woodlark Rift, Papua New Guinea, rocks have travelled from 60-100 km depths to the surface in the past several million years. This is only site on Earth where such rocks are today being 'caught in the act' of breaching the surface. This ascent rate is geologically equivalent to a rocket launch. Our proposal addresses the mystery of how ultra-deep rocks can rise from the mantle to the surface at rates similar to the horizontal plate motions. Our multidisciplinary study (geophysics and geology) will provide insight into the fundamental deformational properties and forces that drive our planet's tectonic engine.

Total Awarded: $795,556

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Assoc Prof TA Little

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 08-VUW-020


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: How is overgeneral memory related to the development of psychopathology in young people?

Recipient(s): Associate Professor KE Salmon | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Associate Professor PE Jose | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Professor RA Bryant | AI | University of New South Wales
Professor R Fivush | AI | Emory
Professor JE Reese | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Most of our experience draws on memory, yet memories are vulnerable to biases that can harm our wellbeing. Focusing on early adolescence, we will study the origins and effects of one such memory bias, the tendency to report general memories when asked to recall a specific event (“overgeneral memory”). Overgeneral memory predicts the onset, severity, and recurrence of depression in adults and adolescents. Moreover, there is a suggestion that overgeneral memory may pose significant risk for the first depressive episode in adolescence. Yet we know little about the origins and development of overgeneral memory in youth. This is particularly problematic as rates of depression soar across adolescence, with serious and often lifelong consequences. Our proposed research will address this gap. Using longitudinal and experimental designs, we will track the origins and development of overgeneral memory across early adolescence. Drawing on seminal theory and research of our team, we will test our proposal that overgeneral memory recall develops within key parent-child interactions. We will target these interactions in an intervention study. Our research will extend existing theory of overgeneral memory in adults, and will be highly relevant to understanding the development and prevention of psychopathology in youth

Total Awarded: $652,174

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Associate Professor KE Salmon

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 13-VUW-077


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: How responsive is migration to financial incentives? Evidence from New Zealand's student support scheme

Recipient(s): Dr IYF Sin | PI | Motu Economic & Public Policy Research Trust
Associate Professor R Abramitzky | AI | Stanford University

Public Summary: The effect of financial incentives on international migration and the role of financial constraints in limiting migration are important questions in economics, yet are poorly understood. The challenge lies in the fact that people who differ in gains from migration or wealth typically differ systematically in other unobservable ways that affect their migration decisions. I will tackle this challenge by use detailed individual-level data and modern econometric techniques to analyse several changes in NZ student support policy that created variation in wealth or incentives to migrate that mimics an experiment. My findings will also inform NZ migration and education policy.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: Motu Economic & Public Policy Research Trust

Contact Person: Dr IYF Sin

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 15-MEP-001


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