Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: After the original: Iterative poetics and global culture
Recipient(s): Dr J Edmond | PI | University of Otago
Public Summary: Globalization and new technology challenge existing notions of cultural difference and artistic originality, by seeming to homogenize diverse cultures and to encourage copying over original thought. I propose to rethink cultural difference and originality for the twenty-first century through a new theoretical framework for cross-cultural literary comparison that I term “iterative poetics.” I develop this framework through comparative analysis of contemporary iterative poets writing in Chinese, English, and Russian. These poets produce a striking array of works composed from pre-existing materials through techniques such as translation, performance, and sampling. I bring this iterative turn in contemporary poetry into dialogue with a similar tendency in cultural theory. Like contemporary poetry, cultural theory increasingly adopts an iterative approach, treating culture not as original or derivative but as the product of repeated acts and multiple sources that are themselves part of a vast network of interconnecting texts, images, sounds, and ideas. My iterative framework reveals how these poetic practices and cultural theories are intertwined with technological development and globalization. By investigating the way technology and globalization transform originality and cultural difference, I seek to develop a new approach to cross-cultural comparison that recognizes how iteration and combination are shaping our emergent global culture.
Total Awarded: $361,874
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr J Edmond
Panel: HUM
Project ID: 10-UOO-014
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Agent-based modelling of drug and radiation action in the tumour microenvironment
Recipient(s): Dr KO Hicks | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr MGV Bogle | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor WR Wilson | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: We are leaders in using 3D cell cultures and mathematical modelling to understand and exploit abnormal features of the tumour microenvironment (such as hypoxia) in cancer therapy. We will extend this using agent-based modelling to simulate individual cell fates while realistically accounting for spatial heterogeneity in cell state and microenvironment. We hypothesise this approach will enable efficient computational exploration of drug and radiation interactions. We will rigorously validate the modelling using multicellular tumour spheroids (a 3D experimental system with complexity intermediate between conventional cell cultures and tumours) in the context of combining hypoxia-targeted prodrugs with conventional cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Total Awarded: $773,913
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr KO Hicks
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 13-UOA-187
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Algebra for user interface customisation
Recipient(s): Dr C Lutteroth | PI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: This project will develop a novel algebra for graphical user interface (GUI) customization that describes how GUIs can be safely manipulated by end users, and how they can be structurally transformed. The customization of GUIs is very important to make software more usable, however, most existing approaches are either lacking a formal basis or are too specialized. By defining customization as an algebra on all possible GUIs with operations that correspond to simple mouse interactions, customization of GUIs by end users will be given a theoretical foundation. This is necessary to ensure that comprehensive customization can be performed safely.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr C Lutteroth
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 09-UOA-019
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Algorithmic randomness, computation and complexity
Recipient(s): Prof RG Downey | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr DC Turetsky | AI | University of Vienna
Public Summary: I seek to improve our understanding of how computation and complexity
(resource bounded computation) interact with mathematical processes.
I especially wish to do this in algebra, model theory, and combinatorics.
I wish to use the ideas of computability and complexity to improve our
understanding of what randomness means, and how it inter-relates with
relative computational strength.
Total Awarded: $443,478
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Prof RG Downey
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 12-VUW-060
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: Allosteric regulation and the dynamics of a molecular pendulum that controls a catalytic clock
Recipient(s): Professor EJ Parker | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor VL Arcus | AI | Waikato University
Dr DD Boehr | AI | Pennsylvania State University
Public Summary: How do living organisms respond to environmental and chemical stimuli?
The ability to respond to environmental and chemical signals is a hallmark of living organisms. As biological catalysts, enzymes are the key machines of cellular metabolism and therefore precisely regulating their activities is crucial for life. In this project we will investigate in detail how a dynamic molecular pendulum directly controls catalysis of an important group of enzymes. This research will help unravel the intricacies of the molecular control of enzymes and contribute to an enhanced understanding of how dynamics and protein motion influence enzyme action. These studies will also facilitate the construction of new tailor made proteins.
Total Awarded: $760,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Professor EJ Parker
Panel: PCB
Project ID: 14-UOC-103
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2011
Title: Ambition and the anterior cingulate cortex: neural-level contributions to effortful choice behaviour
Recipient(s): Dr KL Hillman | PI | University of Otago
Prof DK Bilkey | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: A key component of ambition is the tendency to select high-effort/high-reward pursuits over easier, but less rewarding, alternatives. This willingness to ‘put in the extra effort’ is associated with several positive outcomes, yet very little research has examined how the brain actually encodes and drives effortful choice behaviour. In this project we test the hypothesis that, at the neural level, selecting high-effort/high-reward pursuits depends on activity levels in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC), a region of prefrontal cortex. By simultaneously recording brain activity and monitoring behavioural performance in laboratory rats, we will determine whether ACC activity precedes and predicts high-effort choice behaviour, and moreover whether an underlying difference in ACC properties separates ‘low-effort’ from ‘high-effort’ individuals. Together these experiments will delineate specific neural level mechanisms that contribute towards the ambitious mindset.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr KL Hillman
Panel: CMP
Project ID: 11-UOO-076
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2016
Title: An Artificial Algebra for Implicit Learning of Mathematical Structure
Recipient(s): Professor RC Grace | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor S Kemp | PI | University of Canterbury
Dr AJ Wilson | AI | Private Individual
Public Summary: Humans have a nonverbal ‘number sense’ or approximate number system (ANS) which allows us to make approximate judgments of quantity or magnitude. This ability is shared with nonhumans and has developed over the course of evolution. Understanding the ANS has considerable practical importance because research has shown that it is linked with mathematics learning. Here we investigate the possibility that the ANS provides a far more complete scaffolding for symbolic mathematics than previously thought. Specifically, we propose that the ANS represents algebraic structure, specifically elements of a mathematical field: Arithmetic operations corresponding to addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division, and axioms of commutativity, associativity and distributivity. In our studies, participants view a pair of stimuli, such as circles that vary in brightness or area, or numbers of dots, and respond by clicking along a bar. Feedback is provided, and participants learn to respond as if they were performing arithmetic operations on the stimulus values. Our task is an artificial algebra, because it teaches algebraic structure without use of symbols, explicit instruction, or participants' mathematical knowledge. We will also test whether similar results are obtained with a nonhuman species (pigeons), and if ability to learn the artificial algebra predicts mathematics achievement.
Total Awarded: $705,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Professor RC Grace
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 16-UOC-079
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: An Atlas of the Gut: A Framework for Integrating Structure to Function.
Recipient(s): Associate Professor LK Cheng | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr P Du | AI | The University of Auckland
Associate Professor G O'Grady | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: The gut is constantly on the move! It moves to break-down and mix ingested food, helping to absorb nutrients and eliminate waste. The movements of the gut are 'powered' by a bioelectrical activity that is generated by inter-connected networks of pacemaker cells distributed throughout the gut. This proposal seeks to develop an experimental-theoretical framework that will provide new insights into the relationship between gut tissue structure, bioelectrical activity and resultant movements. A series of unique sensors and imaging techniques will be developed and applied. These novel structural-functional data will be integrated using mathematical modelling and quantitative analysis techniques to produce an atlas of gut bioelectrical functions.
Total Awarded: $950,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Associate Professor LK Cheng
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 17-UOA-352
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: An Ethical Framework for Social Policy Applications of Predictive Analytics
Recipient(s): Associate Professor T Dare | PI | University of Auckland
Dr BP Smith | AI | Lakes District Health Board
Professor R Vaithianathan | AI | AUT University
Public Summary: We are in the midst of a practical and intellectual revolution. Predictive analytics - the accumulation of vast bodies of searchable electronic data and accompanying development of sophisticated processing and analytical capacity - allows us to accurately assess the probability that a child will be maltreated, a released prisoner will reoffend, a discharged patient will be readmitted, how a court will decide a case, how a student will do at university. Predictive analytics will touch every aspect of our lives. This project focuses on social policy applications. While predictive analytics promises significant benefits in those contexts, it also poses significant ethical challenges. Our capacity to identify patterns and predict outcomes has outpaced our understanding of accompanying ethical risks and how they might be addressed. These challenges are not merely hypothetical. Policy makers and others face them right now, and, inevitably, they will persist and grow. Predictive analytics is so powerful and so accessible that it will be used, ethical concerns notwithstanding. We urgently need an ethic for use of predictive analytics in social policy contexts, and that it what this project aims to provide.
Total Awarded: $635,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Auckland
Contact Person: Associate Professor T Dare
Panel: HUM
Project ID: 17-UOA-175
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: An insect jumping gene to guide personalised cancer medicine
Recipient(s): Professor WR Wilson | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor SK Bohlander | AI | The University of Auckland
Professor RB Lock | AI | University of New South Wales
Associate Professor CG Print | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: The extreme genetic heterogeneity of cancers is a major challenge for their treatment and calls for development of predictive biomarkers that can be used to match drugs to individual patients. We have developed a prodrug, PR-104, that shows significant activity in some patients with relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia. This project will exploit two complementary genetic screening tools to discover genes that confer PR-104 sensitivity.
One approach utilises an insect transposon (jumping gene) called piggyBac to create mutations that can be precisely mapped in the genome. We will use a modified piggyBac transposon to generate ‘libraries’ of leukaemia cells comprising approximately a million clones, each carrying a different mutation.
A second approach uses elements of a microbial defence system called CRISPR/Cas to mutate (knock out) essentially all known human genes, individually. We will expose these libraries of mutated cells to PR-104 and related drugs, and will monitor the emergence of resistant clones by sequencing the DNA at the mutation sites.
Finally, we will test whether expression of the candidate PR-104 sensitivity genes identified by these screens enables us to predict the PR-104 responsiveness of individual human leukaemias. This project will build new capability for gene discovery and personalised medicine in NZ.
Total Awarded: $805,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Professor WR Wilson
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 14-UOA-121