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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: The Mathematics of Computation

Recipient(s): Professor RG Downey | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr AG Melnikov | PI | Massey University
Dr KM Ng | AI | Nanyang Technological University

Public Summary: Computation is ubiquitous in modern society, yet the mathematics of computation lags way behind both the applications of computation and the development of classical mathematics. This project contributes to our understanding of the computable content of mathematics. The kinds of basic questions we expect to solve include: - When can computational tasks be performed? - How hard are they? - How does theory align with practice? - Can classical results be proven using computational methods? These general questions are underpinned by technical longstanding open problems as well as general research programs in completely new spheres of investigation.

Total Awarded: $565,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Professor RG Downey

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 16-VUW-131


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: The mechanics of mitochondrial derived peptides (MDP)

Recipient(s): Dr TL Merry | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor D Cameron-Smith | AI | The University of Auckland
Professor TR Merriman | AI | University of Otago
Professor M Ristow | AI | Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule

Public Summary: New Zealand has an obesity and diabetes problem. Exercise and calorie restriction reduce the incidence of these metabolic diseases. The mechanisms underlying the benefits of exercise and calorie restriction are poorly understood. Evidence suggests that they may stimulate the mitochondria to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), which work in concert with other processes to induce systemic adaptations. In the past 12 months it has been discovered that the mitochondria translates peptides called mitochondrial-derived peptides (MDP), and exogenous MDP have systemic health promoting effects in rodents. This opens up an exciting novel mechanism that could control metabolism. However, the upstream factors regulating endogenous MDP production have not been identified. We hypothesis that acute mitochondrial stress and the associated transient increase in ROS stimulates MDP translation, but chronic mitochondrial stress and ROS production is associated with lower MDP levels. We will examine the effect of exercise, diet and metabolic disease, which induce mitochondrial stress and ROS production, on human MDP levels, and utilise human, rodent and cell culture studies to delineate the relationship between ROS and MDP levels. Our research team have the diverse expertise required to identify the mechanisms regulating endogenous MDP levels, and pioneer this exciting new research field.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr TL Merry

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 16-UOA-313


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2011

Title: The mechanobiology of joint tissue degeneration

Recipient(s): Prof NB Broom | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr A Thambyah | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: It is well-known that bone and joint formation is a form of functional adaptation, such that the
skeletal system grows and develops in response to gradually changing load bearing environments.
When joint degeneration takes place however, much less is known. In the case of the ubiquitous
disease osteoarthritis (OA), that affects all adults to a greater or lesser degree, the joint is simply
thought of as undergoing 'wear-and-tear' of the cartilage surface. Such a view has led many in
the past to aim their research at studying how the cartilage tissue wears- off and how to prevent
such tissue breakdown. This research will investigate an alternative view, that the degenerative
process of osteoarthritis is also a form of functional adaptation, albeit one that ends up with the
destruction of the joint.

Total Awarded: $360,870

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Prof NB Broom

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 11-UOA-268


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: The missing link: A traceless linking strategy for the conjugation of complex carbohydrates to proteins and peptides

Recipient(s): Dr MSM Timmer | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr BL Stocker | AI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: Carbohydrate-containing proteins, or glycoproteins, are ubiquitous in nature and play an important role in many biological processes such as protein folding and enzymatic activity, and in particular, in the ability of immune cells to identify other host (benign) cells or foreign cells (pathogens). Accordingly, there is much incentive to use glycoproteins to modulate various aspects of the immune response, however, due to the difficulties in isolating pure glycoproteins from nature, glycoproteins need to be prepared synthetically.
The field of the glycoprotein synthesis is still in its infancy. Many strategies for glycoprotein synthesis rely on the use of non-native linkers or on 'destructive' methodologies to couple the carbohydrate to the protein, thereby generating glycoproteins that are unnatural. Other strategies are lengthy and limited in scope. To address this issue, we have proposed new 'traceless' ligation strategies, whereby carbohydrates can be coupled to proteins to generate native ('natural') carbohydrate-protein linkages. Our methodology is envisioned to be robust and efficient and allow for the conjugation of carbohydrates of varying complexity. By doing so, we will revolutionise the field of carbohydrate chemistry.

Total Awarded: $870,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Dr MSM Timmer

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 16-VUW-050


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: The missing link: Pakeha intergenerational family memory

Recipient(s): Associate Professor AE Green | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: The family is a neglected subject in New Zealand historiography, and demographers argue that it is impossible to acquire meaningful data about the past subjective, interior world of the family. This assertion overlooks family memory, stories about the past transmitted down the generations that also continue to influence self-perceptions, values and political motivations in the present. The family memories of Pakeha/New Zealand Europeans, whose forebears migrated to New Zealand before 1914, will be the subject of this research. Fifty multigenerational Pakeha families will be recruited through a random sample of the General Electoral Rolls, and semi-structured interviews recorded with a member of each adult generation. The interviews will encompass orally transmitted stories about the family past, material inheritance, and genealogical research. Two principal questions will frame the analysis: first, the content and form of Pakeha family memories; and second, the relationship between family stories and 'normative themes' in dominant national historical narratives. Investigation of this vital missing link between private and public, past and present in the Pakeha family will generate new knowledge about the inner world of the family in the past, test existing conceptual approaches to family memory, and illuminate Pakeha historical consciousness and identity in the present.

Total Awarded: $520,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Associate Professor AE Green

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 15-VUW-079


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: The morphology of current English

Recipient(s): Professor L Bauer | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Professor R Lieber | PI | University of New Hampshire
Professor I Plag | PI | University of Siegen

Public Summary: This project aims to carry out a complete survey of the morphology available to speakers of current English, providing a description and considering theoretical points raised by that description. Some of the areas we will deal with are already areas of theoretical dispute, others will be raised by the description of largely unexplored areas of English morphology. The three PIs are world-leaders in this area, and the major output from the project will be a standard work in the area for a generation or more.

Total Awarded: $550,222

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Professor L Bauer

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 09-VUW-011


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: The music of the stars: internal structure revealed through the surface vibrations of stars

Recipient(s): Dr KR Pollard | PI | University of Canterbury
Prof C Aerts | AI | Leuven University
Assoc Prof PL Cottrell | AI | University of Canterbury
Dr DJ Wright | AI | Royal Observatory of Belgium

Public Summary: Many stars, including our own Sun, 'ring' like bells and show patterns on their surfaces like those on a drum that has been struck by a drumstick. The pattern of surface vibrations is governed by the internal properties of the star and results in each star having a unique musical 'voice'.

For this research project we will use telescopes at the Mt John University Observatory to obtain precise measures of stellar surface motions in order to deduce the internal structure and evolution of these stars. This advanced technique is known as asteroseismology.

Total Awarded: $533,333

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Dr KR Pollard

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 08-UOC-030


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: The Mysterious Disappearance of Tuuaahu

Recipient(s): Associate Professor JD Sissons | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: One of the great mysteries of Maori cultural history is the absence from the archaeological record of ritual structures comparable to Polynesian marae and temples. The hypothesis that guides this proposal is that this absence is due, in part, to the performance of tapu-removal rites that were focused on tuuaahu (shrines) and other features of the landscape in the mid-nineteenth century. The proposed research will seek to show how these rites reflected changing understandings of tapu, land and personhood. It will thus contribute to a significant rethinking of Maori cultural history and to current debates on ontology within cultural anthropology. The focus of this research will be on the activities of the Taranaki priest Tamati Te Ito, the leader of a Christian tapu-removal movement that came to be known as Kaingarara (Reptile-eaters). Te Ito performed his tapu-removal rites, which included cooking lizards and desecrating tuuaahu in waahi tapu (sacred groves), throughout Taranaki in the 1850s, and his practices are known to have influenced related movements elsewhere in New Zealand. A primary aim of this research will be to document, as fully as possible, the origins, development and influence of Tamati Te Ito's movement.

Total Awarded: $390,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Associate Professor JD Sissons

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 16-VUW-145


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: The neurobiology of maternal behaviour - dissecting the role of prolactin in the medial preoptic area

Recipient(s): Dr RSE Brown | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Parental care is critical for the survival of dependent offspring, with maternal care being the predominant form of care in mammals. The brain’s medial preoptic area (MPOA) is central to coordinating changes in how a mother behaves towards offspring. I recently observed a critical role of the anterior-pituitary hormone, prolactin, in regulating the MPOA during lactation, with mothers lacking prolactin receptors (Prlr) specifically in this region abandoning their pups soon after birth. These data provide the first evidence that prolactin action in the MPOA is essential for normal postpartum behavior. Here, I will use our established genetic techniques to target prolactin-responsive neurons in the MPOA during pregnancy and lactation, and measure their activity with calcium imaging, measure their gene expression in these different conditions, and manipulate their activity using chemogenetics. This will greatly contribute to understanding how hormones act in the brain to regulate behaviour.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr RSE Brown

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 17-UOO-239


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: The new nanobiology: seeing signal transduction with greater clarity

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof C Soeller | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof MBC Cannell | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr XHW Wehrens | AI | Baylor College of Medicine

Public Summary: Cells have specialized signalling structures that contain various proteins in a tightly confined space and geometry. To understand thow these domains work it is critical to obtain nanometer scale information on local protein distribution. In this project we will use novel optical microscopies to resolve the protein distribution within the intracellular junctions of cardiac muscle (that are central to the contractile regulation of the heart). By visualizing receptors in situ with near molecular resolution we will for the first time be able to see the spatial relationship between signalling proteins to improve our understanding of nanoscopic signalling.

Total Awarded: $684,444

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Assoc Prof C Soeller

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 08-UOA-041


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