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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: 2010

Title: Neurogenesis and postpartum anxiety

Recipient(s): Dr CM Larsen | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: There is an increased incidence of mood disorders postpartum. Pathological anxiety, the most common, can have serious long-lasting consequences for mother and child. However, the lack of an appropriate animal model has impeded understanding of the mechanisms underlying this disorder. We have developed a unique rodent model of postpartum anxiety and have established that low prolactin in early pregnancy decreases neurogenesis in the subventricular zone (SVZ), adjacent to the lateral ventricles of the brain. Both low prolactin, and the associated decrease in SVZ neurogenesis, caused impaired maternal behavior and anxiety postpartum. This established for the first time a role for SVZ neurogenesis in mood and behavior. Using this model, we will now determine how prolactin stimulates neurogenesis, where the new neurons go and how they affect behavior, and whether increasing neurogenesis during pregnancy through dietary modifications or an increase in exercise can prevent postpartum anxiety. Further understanding of this debilitating illness will lead to new strategies to prevent the detrimental consequences for women, infants, and their families.

Total Awarded: $260,870

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr CM Larsen

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 10-UOO-009


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: New approaches to uncouple thermoactivity from thermostability in enzymes

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof VL Arcus | PI | University of Waikato
Prof RM Daniel | PI | University of Waikato
Prof MJ Danson | AI | University of Bath
Prof MP Williamson | AI | The University of Sheffield

Public Summary: The way that enzymes respond to temperature is fundamental to our understanding of their molecular function, to biological metabolism, and to many areas of biotechnology. We have discovered and described two new, general thermal parameters for enzymes that give unexpected insights into the way in which the activity of an enzyme varies with temperature. Along with their fundamental importance the parameters also explain difficulties encountered in engineering enzymes for high temperatures. This now opens the way to use combinatorial protein engineering and structural biology to extend our understanding and to design enzymes specifically for high or low temperature use.

Total Awarded: $875,556

Duration: 3

Host: University of Waikato

Contact Person: Assoc Prof VL Arcus

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 08-UOW-057


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: New directions at the geometry-analysis frontier

Recipient(s): Professor AR Gover | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor A Cap | AI | University of Vienna
Professor MG Eastwood | AI | Australian National University
Professor AK Waldron | AI | University of California, Davis

Public Summary: This a fundamental research project concerning the geometry and
analysis of continuously changing structures. It builds on important
recent breakthroughs, including a new theory of how complicated
geometries arise, and can be understood, from a symmetry breaking of
simpler structures.

The project is strongly motivated by central problems in geometric
analysis, representation theory, and fundamental physics; results will
be used to solve these problems. As a part of this, new geometric
constructions will be developed and used to understand and solve
natural partial differential equations. There are potential applications
throughout the physical sciences.

Outcomes will be achieved by an intensive international collaboration
involving world leading experts in the area, and already strong links
with top international research groups will be extended in the
project. These researchers will be brought to New Zealand to
share applicable new knowledge and techniques with local
researchers, including graduate students.

Total Awarded: $434,783

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Professor AR Gover

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 13-UOA-018


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: New directions in the quantum theory of photo-emissive sources

Recipient(s): Professor HJ Carmichael | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor LA Orozco | AI | University of Maryland and National Institute of Standards and Technology
Associate Professor AS Parkins | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Quantum mechanics was largely built upon an understanding of the emission and absorption of photons, from Max Planck’s concerns about the light spectrum emitted by hot objects, to Niels Bohr's atomic model and his and Einstein's quantum-jumping of atoms as they emit/absorb light. Today this physics has an increasingly important presence in the technologies that order our lives. Many couple components together through photon exchange, with frequencies ranging from the microwave to the visible. While theory has changed little in the 80 or so years since quantum mechanics became established -- the standard treatment is a “tidied up” version of what Bohr and Einstein envisaged -- experiments with photons have changed a great deal. Some now reach beyond the conditions assumed by a standard treatment: they might employ ultra-strong coupling between components (coupling similar in strength to the photon frequency), or emission into a structured environment where a photon might backscatter may times before it (if ever) escapes. Such conditions call for new theoretical approaches. The proposed research will develop them. It will develop methods to treat ultra-strong coupling, photon exchange in structured environments, and applications to quantum phase transitions for photons.

Total Awarded: $695,652

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Professor HJ Carmichael

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 13-UOA-031


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: New mathematical tools to unravel complex ancestry

Recipient(s): Associate Professor CA Semple | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor MA Steel | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor J Hein | AI | University of Oxford
Professor DH Huson | AI | University of Tuebingen

Public Summary: In the 150 years since Darwin’s 'Origin of Species' was first published, the concept of a phylogenetic tree has successfully represented life's history. Mathematics underlies modern tree reconstruction methods, but we now face a new challenge: at various evolutionary scales, life is described not by a tree, but by a tangled graph that reflects how organisms inherit their DNA from several ancestors. Our project addresses some outstanding questions concerning phylogenetic network reconstruction that demand new mathematical, statistical and computational theory. These questions range from quantifying horizontal gene transfer events in early life to the detailed reconstruction of recent human history.

Total Awarded: $512,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Associate Professor CA Semple

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 09-UOC-008


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: New metallosupramolecular synthons

Recipient(s): Prof PJ Steel | PI | University of Canterbury
Prof FR Keene | PI | James Cook University

Public Summary: Modern material science and nanotechnology routinely exploit the properties of materials that contain metal atoms linked by organic molecules (ligands). We intend to dispel the current dogma that the best such bridging ligands use nitrogen heterocycles and carboxylic acids to bind the metal. Indeed, we contend that many hitherto overlooked interactions of organic functional groups with metal atoms can be harnessed to provide new building blocks for preparing both discrete and polymeric supramolecular assemblies. In this context, we will synthesise a diverse range of new bridging ligands that will be combined with various metals to assemble nanoscale species with defined architectures. By strategic design of these ligands and the appropriate choice of metal atoms we expect to prepare many new compounds that will have useful applications as functional materials, such as catalysts, sensors and multiple electron transfer agents. Examples will include 1D-coordination polymers, 2D-networks, 3D-frameworks (MOFs) and discrete assemblies such as molecular cages and helicates. Novel chiral and mixed-metal assemblies will also be studied and applications of these assemblies in organic synthesis will be investigated.

Total Awarded: $769,565

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Prof PJ Steel

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 10-UOC-019


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: New methods for imaging biological macromolecules using x-ray free-electron lasers

Recipient(s): Professor RP Millane | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor HN Chapman | PI | University of Hamburg

Public Summary: Our understanding of biological systems in health and disease depends in large part on studies of the structures and interactions of biological macromolecules, which is referred to as structural biology. X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) are revolutionising structural biology because they can image extremely small samples while avoiding radiation damage. However, the numerical algorithms that are used to calculate images from the measured data are still based on conventional methods that severely restrict their applicability. The result is that there are many thousands of biological molecules, many of which are drug targets, whose structures and functions are unknown. The applicants are leading researchers in x-ray imaging, and propose to develop new methods that will extend the application of XFELs to study biological molecules that are inaccessible using current techniques. They will achieve this by developing a synthesis of novel processing of hitherto unused x-ray data from protein crystals and an infrared laser-based system to modify the crystals in the XFEL before the x-ray data is collected. The downstream benefits will be improved information on the molecular basis of biological function, which has important implications for understanding disease process and for structure-based drug design.

Total Awarded: $830,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Professor RP Millane

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 16-UOC-069


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: New Methods of Panel Data Forecasting Applied to New Zealand’s Property Market

Recipient(s): Dr RT Greenaway-McGrevy | PI | The University of Auckland
Distinguished Professor PCB Phillips | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Panel data models often produce forecasts that out-perform relevant benchmarks by a substantial margin. These models exploit the wealth of information contained in datasets that track institutional units such as individuals, households or firms, across time and space.

Despite these recognized advantages, there is little statistical theory to assist practitioners when forecasting with panel data. Existing theory is silent, for instance, on critical questions such as how to choose a model to achieve the most accurate forecast. This is a major deficiency in practical work. Arming practitioners with a rigorous framework for forecast analysis and evaluation opens up opportunities to achieve sustained improvements in forecast accuracy.

The project will respond to this need by developing and applying new forecasting methodologies that are tailored to panel datasets. The theory will provide new forecast model selection and model averaging techniques, forecast evaluation methods, and tools for inference. The empirics will showcase the methods in an application that bears on an increasingly important, heavily-discussed, and policy-relevant topic in New Zealand: Forecasting and analysing property prices, potential contagion across regions, and the effects of proposed policy responses to the housing crisis in Auckland and its spill over effects on other regions of New Zealand.

Total Awarded: $705,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr RT Greenaway-McGrevy

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 16-UOA-239


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: New Optical Sensors for Geophysical Applications

Recipient(s): Professor NGR Broderick | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr R Sutherland | AI | GNS Science
Associate Professor J Townend | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Associate Professor K Van Wijk | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: We will develop new distributed optical fibre sensors capable of measuring temperature and vibration along kilometre lengths of optical fibres in hostile environments. These will be tested and used to monitor the Alpine Fault in the South Island using the DFDP-2 borehole. Our project will result in an improved understanding of the behaviour of the Alpine Fault and provide insight into newly discovered slow slip events that act to relieve stress on the plate boundary. The new generation of optical sensors will have multiple applications in geophysics and seismic surveys as well as other applications in structural health monitoring. Finally we will explore the limits of optical sensing technology for geophysics looking at new modalities and new fibres and what is possible in the future.

Total Awarded: $830,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Professor NGR Broderick

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 16-UOA-296


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: New pathways for new learning: probing a novel brain circuit for associating environmental stimuli with rewards

Recipient(s): Associate Professor BI Hyland | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Learning cue-reward associations is vital for guiding decisions about which stimuli to respond to, but little is known of the brain circuits that are engaged during initial learning. In preliminary work we have identified a novel candidate brain region that may be an important previously unrecognized node in brain circuits for early learning. We will dissect the role of this structure during learning using neurophysiological and neurobehavioural methods. The project will lead to a new map of reward-learning circuits in the brain, which will further enhance New Zealand neuroscience’s international reputation for research into reward-mediated learning.

Total Awarded: $782,222

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Associate Professor BI Hyland

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 09-UOO-064


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