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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2011

Title: Retracing the evolution of enzyme regulation: understanding the molecular mix-and-match that gives rise to sophisticated metabolic control

Recipient(s): Dr E Parker | PI | University of Canterbury
Prof GB Jameson | AI | Massey University

Public Summary: Precise control of metabolism is of crucial importance to living organisms. One important method for achieving this is by controlling the rate at which enzymes catalyse metabolic processes. Enzymes have evolved a remarkably complex array of strategies to alter their activity in response to chemical signals. The exquisite nanoscale network that allows enzymes to respond to chemical signals can be likened to a highly sophisticated telecommunications network, where events at remote sites are intimately connected.

This project has two interwoven strands: (1) to reconstruct the evolutionary steps that gave rise to intricate and diverse modes of regulation used by contemporary enzymes, and (2) to determine the mechanisms by which the chemical signals are transmitted (the network wires) to the factory floor, the active site, of the enzyme.

This research will inform the design of novel biocatalysts and will assist the development of new models for antibiotics against pathogenic organisms.

Total Awarded: $639,130

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Dr E Parker

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 11-UOC-126


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Revealing Desire between Men in the Byzantine Empire

Recipient(s): Dr M Masterson | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: The presence and importance of desire between men in the Byzantine Empire has been understudied. The work to date has emphasised prohibition and disapproval, which are present but not the whole story. This research will produce ground-breaking work on desire between men in and around the cosmopolitan imperial court of the 900s into the early 1000s, work emphasising presence and connection over absence and condemnation. Theoretically aware analysis of (largely untranslated) Greek sources in a variety of written genres (including histories, personal letter collections, secular and canon law, and ecclesiastical writings) and material culture will reveal a situation both more liberal than the medieval West and important for its rite of brother-making (adelphopoiesis), which was a precursor to today’s same-sex marriage. The finished work, in the form of a monograph and a number of smaller pieces, will transform our understanding of Byzantine elite male culture and be an important addition to the history of sexuality.

Total Awarded: $476,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Dr M Masterson

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 17-VUW-060


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2011

Title: Revealing the mosaic genome structure of spatially admixed populations

Recipient(s): Dr MP Cox | PI | Massey University

Public Summary: Admixture between long-separated populations creates mosaic genomes in which DNA fragments (i.e., haplotype blocks) from each parental population alternate along the chromosomes of hybrid offspring. The size and distribution of these haplotype blocks can be used to reconstruct population history. These chimeric chromosomes are also major drivers of evolutionary change in hybrid communities; for instance, introducing new gene variants for disease resistance. Population admixture dominated Pacific prehistory. Modern Pacific peoples are a complex fusion of Asian and Melanesian ancestry, but how this admixture is distributed through the human genome remains a mystery. This research program will i) develop the required theory and computational tools to model complex admixture processes, and ii) infer the history of Pacific populations using the haplotype block structure observed in genome-scale genetic datasets. This work will advance our understanding of Pacific colonization, and will provide a demographic baseline to investigate the evolution of disease resistance and susceptibility among indigenous Pacific peoples.

Total Awarded: $677,391

Duration: 3

Host: Massey University

Contact Person: Dr MP Cox

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 11-MAU-007


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Revealing the role of surface states in PbSe nanocrystals

Recipient(s): Dr DA Carder | PI | GNS Science
Dr AM Markwitz | AI | GNS Science
Professor RJ Reeves | AI | University of Canterbury

Public Summary: An appreciable fraction of total atoms reside at the surface of nanoscale particles, and surface irregularities lead to energy traps which influence radiative relaxation processes. Surface states in the technologically interesting PbSe nanocrystal system remain to be identified. We will create embedded PbSe nanocrystals to study their influence on the photo-response. Our unique combination of ion implantation and electron beam annealing facilities will create nanostructures with minimal impurity related defects. Laser spectroscopy at low temperatures will reveal rich information on the role of surface states. The research will create a platform in New Zealand for integrating PbSe nanotechnology with communication technology.

Total Awarded: $266,667

Duration: 3

Host: GNS Science

Contact Person: Dr DA Carder

Panel: PSE

Project ID: 09-GNS-014


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Rewiring life: using synthetic biology and experimental evolution to unravel the evolutionary origins of DNA.

Recipient(s): Professor AM Poole | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor J Ogawa | PI | University of Kyoto
Associate Professor PJ Biggs | AI | Massey University Manawatu
Associate Professor SG Villas-Bôas | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: There are unmistakable signatures of past natural selection in both the choice of the four ‘letters’ with which genetic information is stored in DNA and the processes by which these letters are synthesised. However, we know surprisingly little about the pathway of trial and error that brought us to modern DNA, a seemingly optimal solution shared by all life. To unravel the origins of DNA and broaden our knowledge of genetic materials, we will use synthetic biology tools to recreate two of the critical intermediate stages in the evolution of DNA. The first concerns how DNA letters are made. In modern cells this is chemically complex, even though an easier alternative exists. We will create cells that use the alternative pathway, which is present in modern cells, but only used for recycling. We aim to reverse this pathway and examine what makes the modern complex pathway preferable. We will also create cells with altered DNA to ask what makes the modern DNA alphabet optimal. Some viruses use the letter ‘U’ in place of ‘T’, a throwback to early forms of DNA. By creating a U-DNA cell, we will examine what drove the letter switch in the evolution of modern DNA.

Total Awarded: $850,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Professor AM Poole

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 17-UOA-257


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: Rheo-NMR of non-equilibrium transitions in complex fluids

Recipient(s): Prof PT Callaghan | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr JR Brown | AI | Montana State University
Dr SM Fielding | AI | University of Durham
Dr P Galvosas | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: Soft matter physics deals with complex molecular assemblies where structural organisation is important at the scale of the molecular (nanometres), mesoscopic (many nanometres), microscopic (micrometers) and macroscopic (millimetres), and with motions that can be fast (water molecules tumbling), of intermediate speed (surfactant diffusion) or comparatively slow (structural reorganisation). It deals with systems out of equilibrium, exhibiting complex non-linear dynamics and sometimes chaos. This programme concerns changes to structure and dynamics when soft materials are continuously deformed. It builds on New Zealand’s world-class capability in Rheo-NMR, giving information about molecular motion and organisation under non-equilibrium mechanical response.

The work here concerns the use of advanced Rheo-NMR methods to study shear banding fluctuations in micellar, polymeric and soft glassy systems, combining our ability to image fluid velocity fields at high movie frame rate, along with the localised measurement of molecular parameters related to molecule orientation, rotational dynamics and self-diffusion rates. There is wide scientific interest in such capability and part of this programme will involve the building of a prototype instrument for potential commercialisation.

Total Awarded: $904,348

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Prof PT Callaghan

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 10-VUW-123


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: RHS-repeat-containing proteins, a new paradigm for targeted protein delivery

Recipient(s): Associate Professor JS Lott | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr MRH Hurst | AI | AgResearch
Dr MJ Landsberg | AI | The University of Queensland

Public Summary: We recently described the first 3D structure of a protein containing rearrangement hotspot (RHS) repeat sequences. The protein is shaped like an eggshell, which encapsulates and protects a smaller protein as cargo, prior to its delivery into cells. RHS repeats are found in many bacterial and some eukaryotic proteins, suggesting that they have a fundamental biological function, but that function has to date been unclear. Our pioneering structural information has allowed us to propose the hypothesis that the general function of RHS-domain-containing proteins in both bacteria and eukaryotes is to sequester and deliver cargo proteins to particular cells or cellular locations. We propose an ambitious programme of research to test this idea, using a combination of functional and structural analyses. This will provide fundamental biological insight and may ultimately allow us to use this delivery system as a tool for research or for therapeutic purposes.

Total Awarded: $773,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Associate Professor JS Lott

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 14-UOA-146


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: Riches to rags: does elevated productivity drive ecosystem decay in adjacent natural habitats?

Recipient(s): Dr RK Didham | PI | University of Canterbury
Mr GM Barker | AI | Landcare Research
Assoc Prof LA Schipper | AI | University of Waikato
Dr JM Tylianakis | AI | University of Canterbury

Public Summary: A century of nutrient addition experiments have demonstrated that elevated productivity promotes competitive dominance by one or a few species, driving a dramatic decline in biodiversity - the so-called 'paradox of enrichment'. While the direct effects of nutrient inputs are well tested, there are multiple channels through which resources flow between ecosystems, and their relative magnitude of effect has not previously been quantified in a single system. We will test whether the degree of productivity increase in managed systems determines the degree of ecosystem decay in adjacent natural systems, comparing for the first time multiple resource flow channels between terrestrial ecosystems.

Total Awarded: $684,444

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Dr RK Didham

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 08-UOC-059


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Robotic ‘therapy and assessment’ to understand the development of muscle function in children with cerebral palsy following botulinum toxin treatments

Recipient(s): Dr AJ McDaid | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: In NZ approximately 1 in 500 babies are born with Cerebral Palsy (CP). A feature of CP is spasticity – over-tight muscles. Botulinum Toxin A (BTX) injections have become clinical ‘best practice’ for reducing stiffness, yet the underlying mechanisms of children's ‘functional’ development after BTX are not well understood. In this project, a unique robotic ‘therapy and assessment’ framework will be utilised as a tool to uncover new fundamental knowledge of the neurophysiological mechanisms relating to the development of muscle function following BTX-robot treatments.

A novel robot exoskeleton will be customised for children with CP to collect previously unmeasurable clinical information. A new neuromuscular activation model and dynamic muscle model will be proposed that will for the first time explicitly take into account the effect of BTX injections, in real-time, in vivo. With this new knowledge ‘rule based’ algorithms will be developed which automatically adjust the robot therapy parameters by continuously monitoring the effect BTX and robot therapy is having on a child’s muscles. In this way subject-specific therapy will be targeted to individual muscles. A ‘first look’ pre-post study will be undertaken to validate the new models and targeted therapy.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr AJ McDaid

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 14-UOA-165


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Robust optimisation under uncertainty with limited data

Recipient(s): Professor AB Philpott | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor EJ Anderson | PI | University of Sydney
Professor KE Willcox | PI | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Public Summary: Many practical optimization models are stochastic programs, seeking values for decision variables that optimize a statistical average of some performance measure in order to account for uncertainty in the model parameters. Examples are problems of engineering design under varying operating conditions, or hydroelectric reservoir optimization with uncertain inflows. State-of-the-art solution approaches currently use random samples of uncertain data to generate approximate solutions. Although these converge to the true solution as the sample size increases, approximate solutions from small samples can perform poorly when used in practice. In many examples, adjusting this solution approach using robust optimization techniques produces better approximate solutions. Our research aims to develop a general theory to explain this phenomenon, and will use it to generate new methods for solving stochastic programs with limited sample data. The proposal brings together leading researchers from New Zealand, Australia and the United States in a unique collaboration that links the theory to test applications from engineering design and hydroelectric scheduling. The development of new optimization methodologies will be a breakthrough for improving the resilience of solutions to problems where sample data are limited or expensive to obtain.

Total Awarded: $500,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Professor AB Philpott

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 15-UOA-341


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