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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Tracing the footsteps of a viral polymerase

Recipient(s): Dr RL Kingston | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr AC Hausrath | AI | University of Arizona

Public Summary: Many disease-causing human viruses protect their RNA genome by packaging it into a helical protein-nucleic acid complex. The viral copying machinery - the polymerase - “walks” along this structure during viral replication. To ensure the polymerase remains on track, the underlying protein-protein interactions must be delicately balanced. This study will use biophysical and structural techniques to establish the mechanism by which the polymerase “feet” bind and release their helical template in mumps and related viruses. Transient protein-protein interactions, like those involved in polymerase movement, often couple the act of binding with a structural reconfiguration of one of the proteins involved. It is hypothesized that such structural plasticity confers advantage by reducing binding affinity while maintaining specificity. This allows the polymerase to take rapid steps forward without running off track. Our research will test this idea, which is relevant not just to the movement of molecular machines, but to other cellular processes reliant on transient binding, such as signaling and the regulation of gene expression. The results of our study will advance understanding of the RNA copying machinery of an important family of viruses, and illuminate how order and disorder may be balanced to produce protein complexes with a short lifetime.

Total Awarded: $847,826

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr RL Kingston

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 12-UOA-086


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Track the black: the whakapapa of paru

Recipient(s): Dr KM Rogers | PI | GNS Science
Ms R Te Kanawa | PI | Private Individual
Dr J Leveneur | AI | GNS Science

Public Summary: Intricately woven kakahu (Maori cloaks) are extant exemplars showcasing traditional black iron-tannate dyes (derived from iron-rich paru or muds) applied to New Zealand flax fibre (muka) during the manufacturing process. Paru-dye residues are essentially the only physical remnant left that could track unprovenanced heritage objects or textiles to their origins. By coupling indigenous studies and modern forensic techniques, we will reveal and restore human-environmental linkages and whakapapa (historical relationships) to 'disconnected' paru-dyed taonga (treasures) held in museums and private collections. Reconnection methods will include a strong component of Matauranga Maori (indigenous knowledge), gained through knowledge sharing and semi-structured interviews with key community and iwi (tribe) knowledge holders around traditional paru use to reveal their past significance, curation and location. Using physico-chemical techniques and statistical modelling, we will construct a database to identify unique and diagnostic geochemical properties of paru from sites across New Zealand. Our outcomes will reveal undiscovered geochemical correlations between individual paru pits and heritage textiles. This will allow reconnection of unprovenanced taonga back to iwi, and empower iwi to protect, restore and acknowledge the cultural importance of paru for the provision of black dye in the marae (community) setting.

Total Awarded: $690,000

Duration: 3

Host: GNS Science

Contact Person: Dr KM Rogers

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 15-GNS-023


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Training multiplexed electronic aptasensors to profile hormones in complex samples

Recipient(s): Dr NOV Plank | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr CA Marlow | AI | California Polytechnic State University
Associate Professor CP Unsworth | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Electrical biosensors could cause a paradigm shift in point-of-care biological detection by taking routine tests out of the laboratory and into the home or doctor’s office. In this project, we will develop multiplexed electronic biosensor arrays that can be trained to detect and quantify steroidal hormones estradiol, progesterone and testosterone from a single detection measurement of a complex biological sample, such as blood. The key to creating this functionality, which could have a transformative effect on fertility treatment, lies in the combination of carbon nanotube field effect transistors for electronic signalling, with aptamers – short strands of DNA that selectively bind to a target analyte. Aptamers can be thought of as artificial antibodies that change shape when they bind to their target. By tethering aptamers close to the carbon nanotube surface, their change in shape in the presence of the target hormone is detected as an electronic signal by the field effect transistor. Here we will address major challenges around ensuring selective and sensitive sensing by developing device passivation methods and aptamer attachment schemes. We will fully exploit multiplexed arrays by developing artificial neural network algorithms to “train” our sensors to distinguish between, noise, spurious signals and the real hormone sensing events.

Total Awarded: $950,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Dr NOV Plank

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 17-VUW-096


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Transcending embedded neoliberalism in international economic regulation: options and strategies

Recipient(s): Professor J Kelsey | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Over three decades powerful states and corporations have created a regime of 'embedded neoliberalism'. Enforceable trade and investment treaties are a crucial component, binding governments to maintain the neoliberal 'orthodoxy'. That orthodoxy is now in crisis, along with the system of financialised capitalism it helps to sustain. Signalling a battle between declining and nascent new paradigms some, mainly South governments are seeking to reclaim their regulatory autonomy. Their strategies to exit or redesign their treaty obligations range from unilateral renunciation and mandatory renegotiation to institutional reviews and carve-outs for sensitive sectors or policies. At the same time other, mainly affluent states are negotiating new mega-treaties that aim to bind countries more deeply to the failing model. This research theorises the contradictions of 'embedded neoliberalism' by analysing four sites where states are challenging the international economic treaty regime: financial re-regulation, reinstatement of capital controls, rejection of investment arbitration, and tobacco control measures. Current moves are mainly defensive, ad hoc and uncoordinated. This project aims to provide a coherent theoretical framework to understand the embedding mechanisms and assess which strategies and options are most likely to advance the transformation of neoliberal trade and investment agreements as part of creating a progressive post-neoliberalism.

Total Awarded: $600,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Professor J Kelsey

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 15-UOA-128


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Transformation optics: the science of cloaking

Recipient(s): Dr RT Thompson | PI | University of Otago
Prof SA Cummer | AI | Duke University

Public Summary: Transformation optics is poised to revolutionize the process of designing electromagnetic and optical devices such as cloaking devices and super-resolution lenses. Recent progress in metamaterials research enables the physical realization of such devices. We will push the boundaries of transformation optics by expanding beyond its current limitations. This will be done by building upon a general theory of transformation optics we have developed in a series of recent papers. Our primary goals are to develop a geometric approach to nonlinear transformation optics, enable transformation optics to control and exploit complex material aspects of metamaterials like dispersion, dissipation, and active gain, and to develop new optimization tools in the way of special or restricted transformations.

These goals have been chosen to support a comprehensive strategy for the development of transformation optics. Progress in each area will dramatically improve the utility of transformation optics and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field. The outcome of this research will provide engineers with a more complete set of transformation optics tools with which to design complex metamaterial-based devices. This will pave the way for new innovations having global reach, and bring New Zealand to the cutting edge of this new science.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr RT Thompson

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 12-UOO-052


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: Transformations of entrepreneurial tribal Maori leadership

Recipient(s): Dr M Kawharu | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof PJ Tapsell | PI | University of Otago
Dr H Petrie | AI | The University of Auckland
Dr CR Woods | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: For forty years there has been no major analytical work on contemporary Maori leadership. The economic condition of Maori tribal groups has changed dramatically during that time, from a state of resourcelessness to an unprecedented phase of economic development as a result of Treaty settlements. How have these changes, and the remarkable rise of the entrepreneurial leader, affected traditional notions of leadership? How do tribal groups balance the competing demands of culture and commerce, heritage and development? This ground-breaking research will reveal the significant contribution that indigenous entrepreneurship can make in areas of wealth creation, social stability, and national identity, and its importance to New Zealand’s social, economic, and political future. The multi-disciplinary team - an historian, two anthropologists, and an economist - will use a case-study approach to show how matters such as commercial/cultural balance, trusteeship, accountability to multiple stakeholders, and reciprocity between leaders and their people are negotiated, and how their successful resolution contributes to tribal well-being. The results of their work will lead to a new model of indigenous entrepreneurial leadership that demonstrates the centrality of culture and the complexities of entrepreneurship from an indigenous perspective, and makes an important contribution to international literature on entrepreneurship.

Total Awarded: $561,300

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr M Kawharu

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 10-UOA-208


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: Transforming Hinduism: religious change in Colonial India

Recipient(s): Dr R Weiss | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: The experiences of nineteenth-century Hindus under colonialism were varied, yet all sought, and sometimes struggled, to make sense of rapid social and political change. Most commentators trace the beginnings of modern Hinduism to this period, when religious leaders addressed diverse audiences in formulating new ways of being Hindu. Their formulations differed according to levels of education, caste, and exposure to colonial power. However, almost all studies of religious change in colonial India have focussed on the writings of urban, elite Hindus, overlooking the concerns of religious leaders speaking in vernacular languages to local audiences. Consequently, little is known about the changing face of Hinduism of non-elite practitioners.

In my research, I will examine important projects of religious innovation among non-elite Hindus in nineteenth-century South India. These projects entailed re-imagining caste, gender, ritual practices, and sources of authority. My principal aim is to consider the impact of colonial and missionary forces on the ways that Hindus reconceived their traditions at the beginning of the modern era. By emphasising non-elite responses to colonialism, this research will challenge prevailing scholarly narratives of the development of contemporary Hinduism.

Total Awarded: $260,870

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Dr R Weiss

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 10-VUW-166


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Transforming the problem of motion blur into a measurement of velocity in time-of-flight distance imaging

Recipient(s): Dr LV Streeter | PI | University of Waikato
Dr G Wetzstein | AI | Stanford University

Public Summary: A key challenge in the application of image sensing technologies (i.e robotics) is the need for rapid processing of accurate spatial information about the environment so that intelligent computer systems can function efficiently. A camera is required that can simultaneously image distances and velocities, enabling real-time accurate measurements of any given scene. Time-of-flight cameras have been designed to measure the distance within static scenes, but are unable to interpret scenes with complicated motion. The proposed research is to fundamentally re-engineer a new camera concept that will transform complex motion from a source of error to a quantifiable essential feature. Using stochastic calculus, I will determine the effect of motion on time-of-flight, leading to the measurement of distance despite motion. This will represent a major step forward in time-of-flight imaging. By incorporating new computational approaches I will apply spatio-temporal light modulation and the correction of motion blur to develop novel image analysis techniques. This will enable accurate estimation of motion critical to restoring the distance measurements. This research will redefine how we interpret motion analysis of video data and provide important insights into time-of-flight range imaging, opening the door to new biomedical and safety applications.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Waikato

Contact Person: Dr LV Streeter

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 15-UOW-008


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Transitions in prehistory: subsistence and health change in northern Chile

Recipient(s): Dr SE Halcrow | PI | University of Otago
Dr BT Arriaza | AI | Universidad de Tarapacá
Dr AR Millard | AI | University of Durham
Dr VG Standen | AI | Universidad de Tarapacá

Public Summary: The transition to agriculture marks a critical tipping point in history, precipitating a radical departure from the preceding 2.5 million years of human life. This newly acquired mode of sustenance affected every facet of society including social organisation, technological innovation and settlement patterns. Human skeletal remains provide the only direct evidence for this transition. Despite the advantages of food security, the model of prehistoric health responses during this transition posits that there was a universally negative effect on human well-being. However, recent work indicates that the patterns of biological response to the development of agriculture are far more complex than originally thought. We now have an unparalleled opportunity to test this model of health change with exceptionally large and well-preserved skeletal samples from northern Chile. We will strengthen the model by documenting dietary and health evidence, employing new approaches to study diet and a comprehensive array of accepted macroscopic methods. This project represents a unique opportunity to advance our understanding of the origin and complex processes of human biological changes during a seminal event in history, one that has far-reaching consequences for our society today.

Total Awarded: $720,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr SE Halcrow

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 14-UOO-001


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Treating cutaneous inflammation by putting skin on a fat-free diet

Recipient(s): Dr CJ Hall | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor PS Crosier | AI | The University of Auckland
Dr K Sun | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Persistent and inappropriate accumulation of immune cells within the skin is damaging and contributes to, increasingly prevalent, inflammatory dermatoses like atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. Understanding what regulates this immune response is fundamental to designing new therapies to treat inflammatory dermatoses. It is now well-recognised that immune cell function is partly controlled through intrinsic metabolic processes (metabolic reprogramming). By live imaging epidermal cell metabolism during cutaneous inflammation, in transparent zebrafish embryos, we have shown epidermal cells utilise fatty acid metabolism to ‘fuel’ immune cell accumulation. As a first example of metabolic reprogramming operating within a non-immune cell compartment to guide the immune response, this study reveals the metabolic-immunological interface as a new therapeutic target to treat cutaneous inflammation. We propose inhibiting uptake and metabolism of fatty acids within epidermal cells, during skin inflammation, represents a new strategy to block/suppress the persistent immune response that underlies cutaneous inflammation. The objective of this proposal is to exploit these novel findings and identify drugs that suppress skin inflammation by targeting this new pathway. Importantly, understanding the mechanisms of action of identified drugs will provide an entry point to explore new pathways that modulate the metabolic-immunological interface within skin cells during inflammation.

Total Awarded: $755,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr CJ Hall

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 14-UOA-251


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