Otago secures major Marsden funding

Thursday 6 September 2007

Otago secures major Marsden funding

University of Otago researchers have gained major funding to undertake leading-edge research in the latest Marsden round announced today.

More than a quarter of this year’s $44m pool was allocated to Otago researchers to undertake 20 projects. The University’s share was the largest of any institution.

Researchers at the University will investigate areas ranging from the origin of our solar system, to a potential HIV therapy, to the history of interracial marriage in New Zealand.

Other projects include improving eyewitnesses’ identification of suspects in photo line-ups and the role a hormone called MIS may play in boys’ behaviour.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Geoff White congratulated the Otago researchers on their well-earned success in the prestigious funding round.

“Marsden funding is extremely competitive nationally - only 10 per cent of the initial applications were eventually funded this year. For Otago’s applications, the success rate was 12.5 per cent.

“Our researchers’ outstanding performance reflects the excellence of the proposals they put forward. Their success rate is an important quality measure that reinforces Otago’s status as New Zealand’s top-ranked university for research,” says Professor White.

The researchers, from across the University’s Divisions of Health Sciences, Humanities, and Sciences, gained 17 contracts and three Fast-Start grants in the round.

The three Fast-Starts provide important support for promising projects by emerging researchers at Otago and are very welcome, says Professor White.

ENDS

Otago’s Marsden recipients:

Dr John Ashton (Pharmacology and Toxicology) – Do cannabinoids heal the inflamed brain? The role of cannabinoid CB2 receptors in neurodegeneration and repair
$250,000 over three years

Dr Peter Dearden (Biochemistry) – The molecular basis of royalty
$782,000 over three years

Dr Richard Edwards (Public Health, University of Otago Wellington) – Pursuing the endgame for the tobacco industry: daring to dream
$387,729 over two years

Professor Allan Herbison (Physiology) – Understanding calcium oscillations in GnRH neurons
$732,000 over three years

Dr Julia Horsfield (Pathology) – When development comes unstuck: investigating chromosome cohesion syndromes in zebrafish
$844,000 over three years

Professor Keith Hunter (Chemistry) – Southern Ocean biogeochemistry: calibrating the cadmium paleo-proxy
$780,000 over three years

Assoc Prof Henrik Kjaergaard (Chemistry) – Phosphorus in the atmosphere
$540,000 over three years

Dr Richard Macknight (Biochemistry) – Identification and characterisation of imprinted genes in plants
$720,000 over three years

Assoc Prof Ian McLennan (Anatomy & Structural Biology) – Is boyhood shaped by MIS?
$728,000 over three years

Dr Elizabeth Poole (Biochemistry) – A human gene using an expression strategy of HIV-1: function and implications for antiviral therapy
$636,000 over three years

Assoc Prof Tony Poole (Medical and Surgical Sciences) – The primary cilium and mechanosensation: a novel approach to understanding kidney fibrosis
$860,000 over three years

Professor Robert Poulin, Dr Devon Keeney (Zoology) – What makes a jack-of-all-trades: constraints on host specificity of parasites
$774,000 over three years

Dr Takashi Shogimen (History) – The Idea of Peace in the Age of Crusades
$242,000 over three years

Dr Claudine Stirling (Chemistry) – Supernova explosion or colliding cosmic clouds: reconciling the origin of our Solar System
$330,000 over three years

Professor Warren Tate (Biochemistry) – A structural basis for decoding mRNA stop signals and mediating polypeptide release in protein synthesis
$704,000 over three years

Assoc Prof Richard Walter (Anthropology) – The first hundred years. The archaeology of New Zealand’s cultural origins
$693,000 over three years

Dr Angela Wanhalla (History) – Colonial intimacies, intimate colonialism: a history of interracial marriage in New Zealand
$165,000 over two years

Dr Jon Waters (Zoology) – Rafting communities in the West Wind Drift: the importance of buoyant kelp
$808,000 over three years

Dr Megan Wilson (Biochemistry) – The maternal blueprint: discovering novel patterning mechanisms in the Honeybee oocyte – Fast Start
$170,000 over two years

Dr Rachel Zajac (Psychology) – “That’s him!” Reducing mistaken identifications in photographic lineups - Fast-Start
$170,000 over two years

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