Twelve top researchers awarded fellowships

Media Release March 18 2009

Twelve top young researchers awarded postdoctoral fellowships

The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology has awarded fellowships to 12 of New Zealand’s brightest researchers to undertake scientific research at the frontiers of new knowledge.

Research topics for the recipients of the Foundation’s Postdoctoral Fellowships include the affects of climate change on wine production, links between food allergies and other allergic diseases, how the brain stores memories, better breast-screening technology, establishing best-practice guidelines for questioning of adolescent witnesses, and using the immune effects of vaccination to improve cancer treatment.

One of the fellows is the Foundation’s current MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year, Rebecca McLeod of the University of Otago. She will look at how naturally-occurring chemicals in seaweeds can be used as indicators of the diets of coastal animals, particularly those inhabiting beaches.

Postdoctoral Fellowships are designed to foster the development of New Zealand’s emerging and future science leaders and build greater research capability and knowledge.

Recipients are offered an annual stipend of up to $61,000 a year for three years, plus allowances for research costs and ongoing skills development, with each fellow eligible to receive a total of up to $277,500 over the three years.

The Foundation is investing $3.687 million in this round of fellowship candidates and invests $6 million annually in the fellowship programme.

Foundation chief executive Murray Bain says it is exciting to see New Zealand’s emerging scientific talent being applied to areas of discovery and new technologies that will build capability and help to position New Zealand as a world leader in some research areas.

Two of the fellows in this round are undertaking their research overseas, working with internationally respected institutions.

“We try to award two or three of the fellowships in each round to New Zealanders undertaking their postdoctoral work overseas,” Murray Bain said.

“This not only gives them exposure to overseas institutes and researchers, it means when they return, they will bring back knowledge and contacts that will further benefit New Zealand.”

The fellowships have been awarded to Matthew Rayner (University of Auckland); Helen Fitzsimons (Massey University); Xuezhao Sun (AgResearch); Robert McKay (Victoria University of Wellington); Hannah Lee and Marco Jacometti (Lincoln University); Thomas Lotz (University of Canterbury); Rebecca McLeod and Fiona Jack (University of Otago); Abby Cuttriss (City University New York, formerly at the University of Otago); Elizabeth Forbes ( Malaghan Institute); and Rachel Perret, (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne, formerly at the Malaghan Institute).

Fellowship applications are assessed against criteria including the benefit to New Zealand and the ability of the research to deliver tangible results that can be implemented into viable products or processes.

About the researchers

Matthew Rayner, (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, formerly at The University of Auckland)

Pelagic seabirds – indicators of hot oceanography for resource management: Oceanic seabirds target productive marine habitats where they integrate ecological signals, presenting useful biological indicators for marine resource management. At present the use of top predators as a research tool for marine processes is currently undeveloped in New Zealand. Comparing three small New Zealand breeding Cookilaria petrels, this proposal will investigate the potential of using such birds as a tool to identify and monitor the location and food-web dynamics of productive marine habitats in our oceanic waters.

Elizabeth Forbes, Malaghan Institute

Getting to the guts of allergic inflammation: There is evidence indicating an increase in the prevalence of food allergy in much of the Western World, particularly in children. The onset of food allergy is often preceded by atopic dermatitis, or eczema. The majority of young children with food allergies and eczema go on to develop respiratory allergies and asthma and these children are more likely to suffer from severe asthma and are at a greater risk of anaphylactic reactions. The goal of this research is to develop an animal model that is relevant to human exposure, providing a better understanding of the inter-relationship of food allergy and other allergic disease processes. This research will also develop a model system to assess food product opportunities related to functional foods for health and wellness, balancing enabling innovation with robust safeguards.

Rachel Perret, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne (formerly at the Malaghan Institute)

Investigating the immune effects of vaccination to improve cancer immunotherapy: Immunotherapy is a promising approach to treat cancer but its success is hampered by the fact that the beneficial effector T-cell response elicited is often insufficient to overcome the suppressive tumour environment. There is recent clinical evidence that the use of a particular cancer vaccine formulation can enhance the effector T-cell response in melanoma patients while decreasing the frequency of suppressive regulatory T-cells. The objective of the proposed study is to test the hypothesis that effective cancer vaccines are those that elicit a strong increase in the tumour-specific effector T-cell : regulatory T-cell ratio.

Robert McKay, Victoria University of Wellington

Climatic shifts at the East Antarctic margin: Sedimentary drill core records from the Antarctic margin provide the best direct physical evidence of long-term ice sheet and sea-ice variability. Research will take place at five new drill sites to evaluate for the first time the influence of variability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet on the production of cold Antarctic bottom water and its interaction with the Southern Ocean and global climate. The research will provide an unprecedented long-term history of the world’s largest ice sheet since its inception approximately 36 million years ago, including its sensitivity during past periods of major climatic change.

Hannah Lee, Lincoln University

Calpains as a drug target in neurodegenerative diseases: Despite intensive research, the mechanism responsible for neurone destruction is not understood. Elevated intracellular calcium is a ubiquitous feature of neurodegenerative diseases and the over-activation of the calpain proteolytic system by calcium influx is know to be a key event associated with excitotoxicity leading to pathological neuronal death. At Lincoln there are two naturally occurring sheep models of Battens disease (the most common inherited neuronal degenerative disease in children, sharing many characteristics with other neurodegenerative disease). This research will be the first to investigate the linkage between calpain activation and the progress of neuronal degeneration in a complex human-like brain. The expectation is that the underlying mechanism will advance current knowledge of a range of human neurodegenerative disorders.

Marco Jacometti, Lincoln University

Evaluating the effects of climate change on wine production: The effect of climate change on agriculture, in New Zealand and around the world, is causing some concern among scientists, who believe that biological control and other natural systems which currently reduce agricultural pest populations may destabilise, resulting in an increase in pest pressure and possible epidemics. This research will deploy technologies to assess the ability of enhanced ecosystem services to mitigate the impacts of this change.

Rebecca McLeod, University of Otago

Testing of biomarkers as tools for understanding coastal ecological processes: A fundamental question for ecologists is “who” is eating “what”? Increasingly, naturally-occurring chemicals in food sources are being used as diet tracers for animals, as many of the chemicals are absorbed by the animal during digestion. Using beaches in Australia and New Zealand as case studies, this project will test the appropriateness of different chemicals as tracers for kelp in beach communities. The research will question whether kelp that is washed up onto beaches is used as a food source by animals living on the shore. Once the tracer chemicals have been determined and refined, they will be useful in a range of marine ecological studies worldwide.

Fiona Jack, University of Otago

Towards establishing best-practice guidelines for questioning adolescents in legal contexts: Many researchers have examined the factors that both enhance and limit children’s ability to provide evidence in legal settings, leading to significant reform in policy and practice. In contrast, although brain maturation and social development continue into early adulthood, virtually no research has been conducted on adolescents’ eyewitness abilities. This research will provide data on the factors that influence adolescents’ ability to provide eyewitness evidence, which will be used by the New Zealand Police in the development of best-practice guidelines for questioning adolescents.

Abby Cuttriss, City University New York (formerly at the University of Otago)

Grass roots – the role of carotenoids in enhancing stress tolerance: Environmental change and the increased risk of extreme weather events, such as drought, mean that New Zealand needs to develop stress-tolerant crops and pasture grasses to protect our food security and maintain sustainable agricultural practices, despite adverse environmental conditions. Carotenoids are a large family of compounds that have roles in photosynthesis, plant protection and as precursors for the stress hormone abscisic acid. The ultimate aim of this research is to identify and manipulate carotenoid regulators, which will lead to enhanced root carotenoid composition, improved stress tolerance and plant yield.

Helen Fitzsimons, Massey University, Palmerston North

Holding onto our memories – the role of epigenetics in memory storage: Many memories are retained long-term, some over a whole lifetime, however little is known about the mechanism by which they remain stored despite constant protein turnover. This research will approach the study of learning and memory from a new angle, which is to study structural changes to chromosomes that occur during memory storage.

Xuezhao (Sunny) Sun, AgResearch, Grasslands campus, Palmerston North

Mitigation of livestock greenhouse gas emissions using forage herbs: Methane and nitrous oxide are the main greenhouse gases produced in New Zealand pastoral agriculture. Previous studies showed that the forage herb, chicory, has resulted in significantly lower emissions than pasture and this project will explore the reasons for the lower emissions. The research will also measure nitrogen excretion in faeces and urine, because a diversion of surplus nitrogen away from urine to faeces will lower agricultural nitrous oxide emissions.

Thomas Lotz, University of Canterbury

Digital Imaging-based Elasto-Tomography (DIET) Breast Cancer Screening Technology – from the lab to clinical proof of concept: Current breast screening method of choice (x-ray mammography) is invasive, requires expensive and specialised equipment and staff, is not very accurate and not very popular among tested women due to the pain and discomfort it causes. DIET is a new technology being developed at the University of Canterbury that relies on digital imaging of the surface of a breast during induced vibrations to derive mechanical properties of the breast tissue. The underlying concept is that the motion seen on the breast’s surface differs depending on the stiffness of the tissue within the breast. As cancerous tissue is 10 to 100 times stiffer than healthy tissue, a characteristic surface motion can be related to a potentially cancerous inclusion.

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