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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Predicting the adaptive potential of small populations: a case study in the endangered New Zealand hihi

Recipient(s): Dr AW Santure | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr P Brekke | AI | Zoological Society of London
Dr JG Ewen | AI | Zoological Society of London

Public Summary: Predicting how populations adapt to environmental challenges requires knowledge of both the complex genetic basis of traits linked to survival and reproduction, and the selection pressures acting on the population. We will use one of the best long-term studies of an endangered wild bird population in the world, the hihi (Notiomystis cincta) population on Tiritiri Matangi Island, to understand the evolutionary potential of this iconic New Zealand species. In the coming decades, climatic conditions are likely to become unsuitable for hihi throughout their current northern range, unless the populations can adapt to a warmer and drier climate. Our dataset of 1,500 individuals, from a long term population study in a well-characterised environment, offers a unique opportunity to determine both the genetic basis of traits important for survival and reproduction, and the selection on these traits. We will identify hihi with high predicted fitness that will be targeted for breeding programs and founding new populations, maximising the evolutionary potential of these new populations. This research will pave the way for understanding the evolutionary potential of other threatened populations, and will broaden our basic biological understanding of how evolutionary processes are determined by the genetic basis of traits in wild populations.

Total Awarded: $808,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr AW Santure

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 14-UOA-080


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2011

Title: Predicting the epidemic curve

Recipient(s): Professor MG Roberts | PI | Massey University

Public Summary: An outbreak of H1N1 influenza (swine flu) in 2009 highlighted the need for authorities to have pandemic contingency plans in place. These plans will use information from the early stages of the epidemic to project its future course, and to evaluate the control interventions that may be used. While the parameters relating to the infectious disease cannot be known in advance, the contact structure of the population can be, and the ways in which this structure influences the spread of infection can be determined. This is the focus of our proposal. We will develop mathematical representations of epidemics that include heterogeneous contact patterns and interactions. Methods based on network analysis and probability models will be used to derive epidemic curves, displaying the projected incidence of infection over time. We will also use the characteristics of networks to describe how epidemics spread through geographic regions. We will use these models to derive criteria for the surveillance and control of infectious diseases, both in the more abstract contact structures we employ, and by applying these methods to New Zealand data. This will improve our understanding of how epidemics spread, and provide a tool for estimating the public health impact of an epidemic.

Total Awarded: $339,130

Duration: 3

Host: Massey University

Contact Person: Professor MG Roberts

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 11-MAU-009


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: Primary cilia and the central regulation of fertility

Recipient(s): Dr RE Campbell | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Once considered a vestigial cellular organelle, the primary cilium is now a central focus of research into human pathophysiology and cell biology. We have recently identified primary cilia on gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, a small group of cells in the brain that regulate fertility. As defects in primary cilia in humans reduce fertility, we hypothesise that primary cilia on GnRH neurons are essential for GnRH neuron development and function. This project will use advanced transgenic approaches, multiple imaging strategies and classical neuroendocrine techniques to determine the function of GnRH neuron primary cilia. The findings of this work will advance our limited knowledge of primary cilia function in neuronal development and adult signalling and provide the first direct evidence of primary cilia function in the central regulation of fertility.

Total Awarded: $500,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr RE Campbell

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 10-UOO-011


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Primed for action: bacterial adaptive immunity

Recipient(s): Dr PC Fineran | PI | University of Otago
Dr SJJ Brouns | AI | Wageningen University
Dr CM Brown | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: The interactions between bacteria and their ‘parasites’, such as viruses and plasmids, underpin global nutrient cycles, the evolution of pathogens and antibiotic resistance. Bacteria and archaea protect themselves using an adaptive immune system, termed CRISPR-Cas, which has a sequence-specific genetic memory of previous invaders. This memory produces short interfering RNAs that specifically target and destroy invaders. Recently, CRISPR-Cas systems have revolutionised precision genome editing and have, for example, enabled the correction of genetic defects in adult mice. Despite this stunning technological advance, fundamental knowledge is lacking about how memories are derived from invaders. We recently showed that the memory formation process is very robust, and capable of rapidly eliciting new protective memories when facing invaders that were heavily mutated following previous encounters. Exactly how these memories with partial recognition stimulate new memory formation is unknown. We have developed a CRISPR bioinformatic suite to enable accurate identification of the genetic memories and their targets. Using these tools, and our highly active experimental system, we will test our mechanistic model of rapid memory generation and determine if this process is universal to multiple CRISPR-Cas systems. Understanding these systems will have broad implications for biotechnology and prokaryotic evolution.

Total Awarded: $773,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr PC Fineran

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 14-UOO-009


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Probing metal oxide surfaces: investigating the origins of electron accumulation

Recipient(s): Associate Professor SM Durbin | PI | University of Canterbury
Dr MW Allen | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor RJ Reeves | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor RC Clarke | AI | University of Michigan
Professor CF McConville | AI | University of Warwick
Dr TD Veal | AI | University of Warwick

Public Summary: Oxides perform a role in every silicon electronic circuit, although this is largely passive at present. If we can fabricate viable semiconductors from oxidised metals, they would be compatible with existing silicon technology, and create new device opportunities. Several such materials, including oxides of zinc, indium and gallium, have already attracted recent attention for their potential in thin film transistors for flat panel displays. Intriguingly, electron accumulation has been detected at the surfaces and interfaces of these materials. Its origin is unclear, but a deeper understanding will provide the means to control and even exploit the phenomena for devices.

Total Awarded: $693,333

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Associate Professor SM Durbin

Panel: PSE

Project ID: 09-UOC-012


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Probing the chemistry of novel protein crosslinks

Recipient(s): Dr CJ Squire | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor EN Baker | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr PG Young | AI | The University of Auckland
Dr PWR Harris | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: The textbook view of proteins is that their structures are maintained by many weak, non-covalent interactions, with covalent cross-links between side chains limited to disulfide bonds. We have discovered examples of covalent cross-links that challenge that view, most recently an unprecedented Thr-Gln ester bond, in a bacterial cell-surface adhesin. We will use chemical and biophysical approaches to determine how this bond is formed, and what it contributes to protein stability. Preliminary bioinformatics suggests such bonds are present in Ig-like domains of other Gram-positive bacterial adhesins. We will investigate how common they are and what other chemistries may be discovered.

Total Awarded: $750,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr CJ Squire

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 14-UOA-113


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Probing the crust with zircon; a new pathfinder for mineral deposition?

Recipient(s): Dr RE Turnbull | PI | GNS Science
Associate Professor ML Fiorentini | AI | University of Western Australia
Dr JJ Schwartz | AI | California State University Northridge

Public Summary: Minerals underpin human society, however, discovery rates of new resources are declining while demand is increasing. Consequently, new innovative ideas are being developed to better predict their formation and location. One such idea proposes that areas of juvenile crust adjacent to long-lived trans-lithospheric structures are richly endowed in metal deposits. Specifically, these trans-lithospheric structures are important conduits that variably connect metal-rich mantle reservoirs at depth to the upper continental crust, concentrating both magmas and mineralising fluids. We will use a novel approach that will ‘image’ such structures in Zealandia’s Western Province by using the trace and isotopic composition of zircon crystals extracted from granitoid rocks. Following a comprehensive multi-isotopic study of zircon from over 150 granitoids, we will produce a series of isotopic contour maps that will map the 4D lithospheric architecture of Zealandia’s Western Province. These multi-isotopic maps will allow crustal domains and trans-lithospheric structures to be delineated, enhancing our capacity to predict the localisation of the most prospective and metal endowed terranes in New Zealand. This study represents the first time multi-isotopic mapping will have been tested in a continental margin setting, with important implications for understanding similar orogenic belts worldwide, and assessing their metal endowment.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: GNS Science

Contact Person: Dr RE Turnbull

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 17-GNS-022


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Probing the effects of oxidative stress on cellular membranes

Recipient(s): Dr DJ McGillivray | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor M James | AI | Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Public Summary: The effects of oxidative stresses on cellular membranes are implicated in age-related illnesses, including cardiovascular, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. However, little is known about how the physical changes that occur to membrane properties from oxidative stress affect membrane function. This work will use model cellular membranes undergoing oxidative stress, and test for changes in their structural and functional properties with particular interest in changes to membrane interactions with extra cellular proteins and peptides. This will involve developing novel methods of neutron scattering coupled with electrical impedance spectroscopy, and will provide a basis for further work understanding membrane-protein interactions.

Total Awarded: $266,667

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr DJ McGillivray

Panel: PSE

Project ID: 09-UOA-098


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: Probing the memory of quartz sediment

Recipient(s): Prof D Craw | PI | University of Otago
Dr CE Martin | AI | University of Otago
Dr JM Palin | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Titanium in quartz has recently been shown to be proportional to temperature of crystallisation. We will use state-of-the-art methods to quantify titanium in quartz across different temperature zones of the Alpine and Otago schists, eroded roots of modern and ancient mountain belts. These data will be used to test the source of quartz sediment in rivers draining these regions today as well as that of quartz-rich sediments derived from the Otago Schist as it was eroded between 120 and 20 million years ago. This approach should permit reconstruction of the uplift and erosion histories of mountain belts around the world.

Total Awarded: $648,889

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Prof D Craw

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 08-UOO-052


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: Probing the optical absorption of molecules adsorbed on metallic nanoparticles

Recipient(s): Professor EC Le Ru | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: Many optical techniques in nanoscience, and their related applications as new materials or sensors, rely on the absorption of light by molecules on the surface of metallic nanoparticles. The aim of this project is to develop new tools to measure and model this surface absorption, and investigate the conditions under which it is enhanced and/or modified, thereby revealing the mechanisms of interaction of molecules with the surface. To achieve this, we will exploit and further develop a new experimental approach recently demonstrated in our lab. This experimental work will run alongside the development of new theoretical models, constantly informing each other. These advances will provide an entirely new insight into this crucial aspect of nano-optics, which underpins many emerging techniques but had so far remained inaccessible to experiments.

Total Awarded: $840,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Professor EC Le Ru

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 16-VUW-035


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