Search James Cook Fellowship awards 1996–2017

Public Summary: In an international collaboration involving three laboratories, we propose two studies to investigate neurohumoral regulation of hearing. The first project will characterise the cochlear type II spiral ganglion neurones (SGNII). SGNII are thought to provide the sensory feedback which supports active tuning of sound transduction for acute hearing. We are developing a transgenic mouse which will enable us to test this hypothesis using advanced molecular physiological technologies. The second project uses a knockout mouse model which has eliminated the P2X2 receptor for extracellular ATP. This will let us determine the contribution of noise-evoked ATP release in the cochlea to changes in hearing threshold (hearing loss) mediated by this signalling mechanism.

Public Summary: The application of engineering principles to the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of many human diseases is having a major impact on both human welfare and economic prosperity, and bioengineering is the fastest growing engineering discipline worldwide. With the expected completion of the Human Genome project in 2003, engineering scientists now have an outstanding opportunity to help medical science interprete the function of DNA sequence information in terms of physiological function and human health or illness. They can do this by developing suitable instrumentation, measuring biological material properties and developing integrative mathematical models, based on well established engineering principles, which provide the link from cell behaviour to integrated organ behaviour. The bioengineeering project proposed here will use this approach to complete a computer model of the heart and lungs being developed at Auckland University for subsequent use by medical science for research and clinical medicine.

Public Summary: The programme aims to generate a taxonomic/biogeographical synthesis of New Zealand’s freshwater fish fauna in the context of processes at historical/evolutionary/geological and proximate/ecological time scales, examining relationships both within New Zealand, and between New Zealand and other lands with connected evolutionary histories. The galaxioid fishes, the prime object of the study, have a distribution comparable with some other significant southern groups, such as Nothofagus beeches and ratite birds. Phylogenetic analysis, using cladistic methods, will be used to determine relationships amongst fish species, and to facilitate interpretation of evolutionary patterns and distributions in terms of New Zealand’s geological history and its relationships to other formerly Gondwana fragments.

Public Summary: Computational biomechanics is a useful tool for quantitatively analysing the mechanical function of organs such as the heart and breast. This proposal seeks to: (1) construct a coupled electromechanical model of the human heart for analysing the drivers that underpin ventricular fibrillation, which may lead to new therapeutic targets to prevent or eliminate this often lethal condition; and (2) develop a software tool based on soft tissue mechanics to align information from medical images of the breast into a common 3D viewing environment in order to aid clinicians with the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer.

Public Summary: Drug abuse is a chronic relapsing disorder and drug-seeking persists for a very long time even after extensive periods of abstinence. The persistence of drug-seeking even in the absence of the drug suggests a long-lasting rewiring of specific brain circuitry. As a result, addicts are continually thrown into a condition of drug craving that ultimately leads to drug-seeking and relapse to drug-taking. Some of these circuits have been identified but the mechanism underlying the rewiring is still unknown. I propose to apply novel techniques to identify the relevant mechanisms underlying these long-term changes in brain structure and function.

Public Summary: Humans are hugely dependent on honey bees (Apis mellifera), which pollinate more than a third of our food. Globally, however, honey bee populations are under threat. In North America and Europe “colony collapse” disorder is widespread and has devastated bee populations. In New Zealand feral populations of bees have all but disappeared. Central to these collapses are parasites and pathogens including the mite Varroa and its associated viruses. This project will arrest the effects of this parasitic mite by attacking the viruses it spreads. The principal virus target is the “Deformed wing virus” that appears to be the mutualistic partner-in-crime with Varroa mites. The approach is novel for honey bees but has been successfully used with mosquitoes to block the virus causing Dengue fever in humans, which involved inoculating or transinfecting mosquitoes with strains of the bacteria Wolbachia, which inhibit viruses. The goal is to insert a virus-resistant strain of Wolbachia bacteria into honey bees in order to inhibit Deformed wing virus and cripple the Varroa mite parasite and its effects on bees. A key component of this project will be the development of a new collaboration with a leading Australian research group, bringing new techniques and approaches to pest management in New Zealand. For the purpose of knowledge transfer the researchers are already working with honey bee breeders within New Zealand who have strong international links through bee exports. This exciting approach is novel for honey bees, but has the benefit of being a proven technology for virus control in other insects

Public Summary: Through building understanding of how white blood cells invade inflamed cells, Dr Krissansen is developing novel treatments that can potentially be used to fight cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis even heart disease.

Public Summary: One of the fundamental characteristics of life is the need to generate and utilise energy from the environment. With eukaryotic cells, mitochondria are widely believed to be responsible for most of this energy flux and to be the only organelles that consume oxygen for the purpose of ATP production. We have discovered that mitochondrial gene knockout cells devoid of their mitochondrial energy generating system, not only grow in an oxygen-dependent manner, but also consume oxygen at the cell surface. This research programme aims to determine the relationship between plasma membrane electron transport and cell surface respiration, to identify the molecules involved, to investigate the physiological significance of this process and to explore it’s evolutionary origin.

Public Summary: There are major differences in the punishment of offenders between New Zealand, England and Australia and the Scandinavian countries. The project hypothesizes that their differing social characteristics of these two clusters of societies have brought this about. In particular, cultural values drat have evolved from the 19th century onwards and the post 1945 development of their respective welfare states. The research involves historical analysis of appropriate documentation and interviews with ‘key players’ in each jurisdiction to analyse current penal trends. It will lead to a major book, articles and conference papers and publicly accessible forms of knowledge in New Zealand.