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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Linking genes, phenotypes and communities: uncovering heritable variation in community structure

Recipient(s): Dr JD Aguirre | PI | Massey University
Professor MJ Anderson | AI | Massey University

Public Summary: The effects of genes on ecological interactions can be particularly strong in cases where a species provides the habitat for other organisms. Differences in morphology and physiology among individuals of the habitat-providing species create distinct ecological opportunities, and can ultimately drive differences in the communities associated with individual habitat-providers. Uncovering the genetic contribution to variation among habitat-providers can therefore reveal the far-reaching effects of genes on broader-scale biodiversity. Many marine communities depend on the structure provided by kelp species. The strong biological link between structural variation in kelps and variation in the communities associated with kelp makes this an ideal experimental system to examine linkages between ecological and evolutionary change. We propose to use a quantitative genetic breeding design to quantify genetic effects on morphological variation in a habitat-providing kelp, and in turn the effects of kelp genetic variability on the structure of kelp-associated communities. We will use metabarcoding to quantify biodiversity, and exploit the power of this new approach when dovetailed within a rigorous experimental design. By explicitly considering heritable genetic effects on marine communities, our proposal seeks to unify evolutionary and ecological perspectives on the forces governing variation in biodiversity.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: Massey University

Contact Person: Dr JD Aguirre

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 14-MAU-077


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2011

Title: Littlest Hadron Collider: a laser based accelerator for ultra-cold atoms

Recipient(s): Dr N Kjærgaard | PI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof PB Blakie | AI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof E Tiesinga | AI | National Institute of Standards and Technology

Public Summary: We propose to build a novel collider to perform high precision atomic physics measurements. Like the high-energy colliders used in particle physics, our apparatus will smash together bunches of atoms and analyze the spatial distribution of the scattered debris. However, our collider will operate in a regime of extreme contrast: it will use samples of atoms at nano-Kelvin temperatures accelerated to pedestrian velocities of up to a meter per second. The full execution of this collider utilizes a unique collaboration with theorists who have developed state-of-the-art calculations to extract key information from the experimental scattering patterns.

The detailed understanding of how atoms interact at ultra-cold temperatures, and how magnetic fields can be used to manipulate these interactions and reversibly associate atoms into molecules, has been at the heart of cutting edge atomic physics and was central to the work awarded the 1997 and 2001 Physics Nobel Prizes. Our work will yield a better understanding of these interactions, which is of crucial importance for a wide range of applications, including the production of ultra-cold molecules, improving atomic clocks, and performing quantum simulations.

Total Awarded: $639,130

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr N Kjærgaard

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 11-UOO-189


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Living in the shadow of Angkor : responses and strategies of upland social groups to polity demise in the late- to post-Angkor period

Recipient(s): Dr NR Beaven | PI | University of Otago
Dr BM Buckley | AI | Columbia University
Ms AK Carter | AI | University of Wisconsin
Dr SE Halcrow | AI | University of Otago
Dr WD Hamilton | AI | Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre

Public Summary: Factors influencing the decline of civilizations may differentially affect communities on the margins of a collapsing society. How these groups fare during societal decline is central to key archaeological questions concerning population response and societal re-emergence. Archaeological research on the Late Angkorian era maintains a lowland-centric focus, mainly due to previous lack of evidence for highland groups' biological, economic and cultural responses to state collapse. However, by the late 14th century AD and the decline of the great kingdom of Angkor, some ethnic minorities had socially and geographically distanced themselves in the Cardamom Mountains of southern Cambodia. Their existence is known only from burial sites that are unique relative to rituals recorded in Khmer history: re-burial of human bone in log coffins and exotic ceramics, on exposed rock ledges. The sites hold previously untapped information on demographics, health, environmental conditions, and trade relationships, which are essential for answering archaeological questions about responses of marginal cultures in an era of political, environmental, and economic change. Using novel integrations of methods to examine the archaeological information from different perspectives, we will develop the first-ever characterization of a highland culture’s lifeways and how they fared in the Late Angkorian era.

Total Awarded: $626,087

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr NR Beaven

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 12-UOO-026


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: Locked and loaded? Effects of deep seismic and aseismic deformation on Alpine Fault earthquakes

Recipient(s): Associate Professor J Townend | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr CM Boese | AI | The University of Auckland
Dr S Bourguignon | AI | GNS Science
Professor MK Savage | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr DR Shelly | AI | United States Geological Survey
Professor TA Stern | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr AG Wech | AI | United States Geological Survey

Public Summary: A first-order challenge in seismology is determining how the earthquake-generating behaviour of large faults is influenced by ongoing, small-scale deformation processes. The Alpine Fault produces magnitude ~8 earthquakes every 200-400 years, most recently in 1717 AD, but is currently locked near the earth’s surface. Recently detected seismic waves emanating from depths of 25–45 km reveal, however, that the fault is slowly slipping in the lower crust. We will investigate these and other deep-seated deformation processes using new methods of analysing seismic signals, in order to learn how incremental deformation loads the Alpine Fault to the point of earthquake rupture.

Total Awarded: $717,391

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Associate Professor J Townend

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 13-VUW-101


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: Looking for the laity in late antique Gaul, c. 300 - 700 CE

Recipient(s): Dr LK Bailey | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: This project examines the religious experiences and environments of the laity in late antique Gaul. It brings together archaeological, art historical and textual evidence to build up its picture, focusing on the interpretative rubrics of space, action and belief. It also explores the creation of the category of the laity and seeks to establish a sense of the diversity of their worlds. Study of the laity enables a deeper understanding of the development of the Christian Church in this period, as well as the means by which it was absorbed into Gallic culture and society.

Total Awarded: $157,988

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr LK Bailey

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 08-UOA-118


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Looking over a four-leaf clover: structural characterisation of a critical picornaviral RNA clover leaf and its interaction with a viral fusion protein

Recipient(s): Dr SM Pascal | PI | Massey University
Dr K Dutta | AI | New York Structural Biology Center
Professor J Trewhella | AI | The University of Sydney

Public Summary: Hepatitis A, foot-and-mouth disease, polio and the common cold are caused by picornaviruses. These small RNA viruses replicate via a highly conserved but poorly understood mechanism. We propose to determine the structure of three loops from a key picornaviral RNA cloverleaf that interacts with the principal viral protease during viral replication. We will also study the structure of the protease fused to the viral replication protein, the RNA polymerase. Finally, we will combine these molecules to study the larger replication complex. The results will more fully explain the way picornaviruses replicate and may potentially lead to novel viral drug therapies.

Total Awarded: $653,333

Duration: 3

Host: Massey University

Contact Person: Dr SM Pascal

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 09-MAU-009


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: Losing the tops off submarine volcanoes: potential tsunami hazards

Recipient(s): Dr F Caratori Tontini | PI | GNS Science
Dr L Cocchi | AI | Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
Dr C de Ronde | AI | GNS Science
Dr M Leybourne | AI | GNS Science

Public Summary: A long chain of mainly submarine volcanoes marks the Kermadec arc northeast of New Zealand, a consequence of collision between the Pacific and Australian plates. Terrestrial volcanoes commonly undergo sector collapse from weakening of the summit by geothermal alteration. However, the causes and extent of sector collapse on arc and backarc submarine volcanoes and potential to generate large tsunami events is largely unknown. We will investigate this phenomenon using gravity and magnetic geophysical techniques, combined with novel new algorithms that we are developing to accurately locate and map zones of hydrothermal alteration and rock mass weakening on southern Kermadec arc volcanoes. We will generate a model of edifice collapse using new high-resolution data from cruises in 2010 and 2011. Our geophysical models will be further refined using density and magnetisation analyses on rock samples collected from these volcanoes. These results, combined with morphological data of edifice shape and crustal structure, will allow us to determine the zone on southern Kermadec volcanoes that are most prone to sector collapse, thereby creating a tsunami risk. We will generate a tsunami risk model that will be applicable to all submarine volcanoes along the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Total Awarded: $260,870

Duration: 3

Host: GNS Science

Contact Person: Dr F Caratori Tontini

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 10-GNS-021


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Lost in space? New mathematical tools to analyse and search spaces of phylogenetic networks

Recipient(s): Dr S Linz | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor CA Semple | AI | University of Canterbury

Public Summary: Deciphering the evolutionary history of all life from bacteria to primates has long been a challenging endeavor in biology. Recently, phylogenetic (evolutionary) networks have gained popularity in representing complex evolutionary processes such as hybridization and horizontal gene transfer that result in mosaic patterns of relationships. However, the development of new methods to reconstruct phylogenetic networks from molecular sequence data is compromised because the vast space of phylogenetic networks remains poorly understood.

The goal of our project is to develop the first collection of sophisticated mathematical tools and algorithms to systematically analyze and search spaces of phylogenetic networks. We will establish new graph-theoretic operations that transform networks into one another and induce metrics on different network classes. Subsequently, we will analyze the resulting network spaces by means of an associated graph and investigate the mathematical underpinnings of three strategies to search spaces of networks. We expect the resulting tools to form the foundation towards an accurate reconstruction of phylogenetic networks under a likelihood or Bayesian framework. More broadly, the results of our project will have an impact on answering fundamental questions in evolution, infectious diseases, and linguistics that depend upon a disentanglement of complex relationships between organisms, pathogens, and languages, respectively.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr S Linz

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 15-UOA-037


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Lost in transit? Investigating the imbalanced world of erosion and deposition

Recipient(s): Dr G Lube | PI | Massey University
Professor HE Huppert | AI | Cambridge University
Dr JR Jones | AI | Massey University

Public Summary: Granular matter encounters almost every aspect of our life, where Brazil nuts segregate in our breakfast muesli, landslides block the main road to work and cars jam on the way back home. However, one of its most intriguing properties: the ability to co-exist and frequently transition between solid and liquid states remains poorly understood. In contrast to the traditional view of granular flows in a perfectly equilibrated state, we will systematically investigate the transition-causing force imbalances in variably accelerated granular flows. The results will define the needed theoretical framework to quantify and model the natural solid-liquid transitions erosion and deposition.

Total Awarded: $266,667

Duration: 3

Host: Massey University

Contact Person: Dr G Lube

Panel: PSE

Project ID: 09-MAU-110


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Lost in translation: Discovering how plant genes are regulated

Recipient(s): Associate Professor RC Macknight | PI | University of Otago
Professor RP Hellens | AI | Queensland University of Technology
Dr WA Laing | AI | Plant & Food Research Ltd

Public Summary: The precise control of gene expression is vital for an organism’s growth and survival. While transcriptional regulation (DNA to mRNA) has been extensively studied, translational regulation (mRNA to protein) has largely been ignored. The conventional view is that eukaryotic mRNAs encode just one protein. However, it has recently been discovered that large numbers of plant and animal mRNAs have short protein coding sequences (called upstream Open Reading Frames or uORFs) before their main protein-coding region. These uORFs regulate translation.

We recently identified a uORF that controls translation of the rate-limiting enzyme for the biosynthesis of ascorbate (vitamin C), the main antioxidant that protects plant cells from environmental stress damage. The uORF within the ascorbate biosynthetic gene enables it to be translated during stress conditions, when other genes are prevented from being translated to conserve metabolic energy. The uORF also functions to precisely and rapidly regulate ascorbate levels.

Here, we will dissect the mechanisms by which uORFs in the ascorbate biosynthesis gene, and in two other important plant stress response genes, regulate translation in response to drought stress. To improve plant tolerance to stress, uORF sequences will be altered by gene editing to enhance the expression of key stress response genes.

Total Awarded: $895,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Associate Professor RC Macknight

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 17-UOO-089


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