Search James Cook Fellowship awards 1996–2017

Public Summary: Algal blooms produce toxins that accumulate in shellfish and result in the death of fish and marine species. Most of these shellfish toxins target ion channels. Molecules that can modulate the function of ion channels are useful for the rational design and development of drugs for clinical conditions such as pain, epilepsy, stroke and cancer. The chemical synthesis of these toxins is undertaken in order to develop a better understanding of the structure-function relationships of the toxins with their biological targets. These toxins have rich and diverse chemical structures and their complex molecular architecture also poses a significant academic and technical challenge to chemists engaged in their total synthesis.
The aim of the proposal is to synthesise the complex shellfish toxin, pectenotoxin-2, that was isolated from the digestive glands of mussels (Mytilus edulis) and scallops (Placopecten magellanicus) after algal blooms in Japan and Europe. Two related toxins have also been produced by the New Zealand green-lipped mussel, Perna canaliculus. Pectenotoxin-2 is effective against a range of cancers at very low concentrations and interacts with the actin cytoskeleton at a novel site making it a valuable research tool in the study of basic cellular processes. Only small quantities of pectenotoxin-2 are available from natural sources thus limiting pharmacological studies and prompting a chemical synthesis of this complex natural product.

Public Summary: Septic shock with cardiac failure (pump failure of the heart) is a severe syndrome, which is very common in critically ill patients (~10-15%), and can last for several days. The inability of the heart and blood vessels to efficiently transport oxygen to the organs is best described as Acute Circulatory Failure (ACF), which leads to organ failure and high mortality rates. This programme of research will leverage off a recent discovery by Professor Chase, which suggests that changes to the elastic properties of blood vessels could significantly restrict blood flows and hence contribute to ACF. In healthy individuals, the elastic properties of the aorta are responsible for effectively cushioning the highly pulsatile blood flow from the heart, which facilitates a more steady and constant flow of blood (and hence oxygen) to the tissues. However, in shock-induced ACF, the elastic properties of the aorta get out of sync with the pulsatile blood flows, which impairs blood flow and oxygen delivery. This study seeks to confirm and validate these initial results through both experimental and modelling work. The study furthermore aims to use a number of biomarkers related to arterial mechanics to identify the physiological and biochemical signalling pathway leading to ACF. This will shed new insight into how arterial mechanics contribute to this high mortality condition, provide new and non-invasive model-based markers for tracking and treating the condition and, if successful, provide new mechanistic insight that can be exploited to develop new and more effective drugs.

Public Summary: As a coastal nation the majority of New Zealand’s population live in cities and communities built around harbours and other low-lying locations. Consequently, sea-level rise presents a great risk for disruptive climate change to our economy, society and environment. The ability to accurately project future sea-level rises is difficult because of an incomplete understanding of important effects driving the rise. Currently, the single largest uncertainty hampering efforts to improve the predictions stems from a lack of knowledge concerning the potential contribution of the polar ice sheets, in particular the Antarctic ice sheet. This is further complicated by the realisation that the average temperature increase in the polar regions are higher than the average global temperature increase – a phenomenon termed ‘polar (temperature) amplification’ – due to a number of poorly understood amplifying feedbacks such as ocean heat uptake, ocean circulation, ozone hole recovery and more. The level of sea-level rise also depends on local factors. For example, some parts of New Zealand’s North Island are subsiding at up to 3mm per year due to plate tectonic processes. Vertical land movements, coastal morphology, sediment supply, wave and storm climate, ocean dynamics, and the regional geoidal deformation combine to affect the rate, magnitude and ultimately the impact of sea-level rise on a specific location.
In this project, Professor Naish will work toward reducing the uncertainty of future sea-level rise on two levels. Firstly, he will work closely with international collaborators to drill a geological record on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that will help researchers to determine how the ice sheet has reacted to temperature changes in the past and hence provide more accurate predictions of future changes. Secondly, he will improve region-specific projections of sea-level rise in New Zealand by taking into account local influences and hydro-glacio-isostatic (GIA) modelling – the latter referring to the modelling of changes to Southern Ocean sea levels as a consequences of predicted rise of land masses previously depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets. Ultimately, better predictions of future sea-level rises are critically needed for anticipating and managing the socio-economic impacts of the sea-level rise in New Zealand.

Public Summary: Over the past two centuries, women’s status has undergone revolutionary change on a global scale. Change has been uneven, contested and often surprising. Aotearoa/New Zealand is a world-leading example of rapid change, most notably being first in the world to grant all women the right to vote in 1893. At the beginning of the 21st century, it is timely to look back on two centuries of change, deepening, questioning and creating new knowledge about women’s evolving place in society.
In this fellowship, Professor Pickles will examine heroines in modern global history. She will research what these exceptional individuals reveal about women’s changing roles and status over the past 200 years. Focusing on Aotearoa/New Zealand, she will explore women’s place in our nation and the world through a series of archetypes of modern global heroines: mother, warrior, queen, imperialist, technologist, politician, and celebrity. Examining diverse heroines in their historical context will open up innovative historical themes. These range from cross-dressing and glamour to spirituality and religion, death and martyrdom to domesticity, fertility and motherhood, courage and adventure to imperialism, war, and governance.
As well as the first country to grant women the right to vote, Aotearoa/New Zealand has a proud heritage of ‘firsts’ for women in areas of education, politics, governance, sport and business. Despite this, the heroic ‘man alone’ and the ANZAC soldier remain among the most popular and researched national stereotypes. This research will recover often forgotten female heroines such as sea heroines Grace Darling, Ada Lewis and Huria Matenga. More broadly, it will question what it means for diverse women to be heroic, considering masculinity, femininity and sexuality in new ways and across different eras and cultures.

Public Summary: Can we successfully quantize gravity at the cost of breaking Lorentz invariance? Where, exactly, is the Hawking radiation that is predicted to cause black hole evaporation created? Are there any compelling and useful non-perturbative generalizations of standard cosmology? These closely related questions exhibit a rich and deep mathematical structure, are of fundamental physical and astrophysical significance, and are of wide interest to the broader scientific community, (and arguably to many members of the general public). Answering these questions involves subtle and powerful mathematics based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, and its interface with quantum physics.

Public Summary: The research in this proposal will gather together field and laboratory evidence and modelling to provide an overall view of how Earth’s largest supervolcanoes operate. The studies will merge fieldwork-based information on the styles, dynamics and timing of huge explosive eruptions with innovative analytical studies of the eruption products and their enclosed minerals. The results will enable us to understand where and how rapidly molten rock is gathered together below a volcano, then to measure what processes operate during the eruptions, on timescales from many thousands of years down to within minutes of the molten rock being ejected.

Public Summary: What does it mean to be a New Zealander? This is a compelling social question facing an increasingly multicultural NZ. Genetic studies indicate that we can all ultimately trace our origins to Africa. About 65,000 years ago modern humans started expanding across the globe. The final landmass settled by humans was Aotearoa/New Zealand, just 750 years ago. While Maori were the first to arrive, they were joined by later migrants, primarily from Europe, Asia and the Pacific Islands. A genetic study of the population of NZ today will map the many pathways our ancestors took which ultimately brought each of us here. These results will allow us to appreciate and discuss science and what it tells us about our common ancient origins, our unique histories and our shared future as New Zealanders.

Public Summary: Enzymes are the protein catalysts on which all life depends, but we lack an understanding of the molecular basis of their activity. Major difficulties of research are that most enzymes are unstable, limiting the experimental techniques which can be used, and are large complex molecules so that gathering detailed molecular information often requires sophisticated techniques and very expensive equipment. This project will exploit the uniquely high stability of enzymes from our extremely thermophilic bacteria to apply a variety of techniques (especially neutron scattering) to study the interrelationship between the molecular flexibility and the catalytic mechanism of enzymes.

Public Summary: The brain learns and stores information by altering transmission at the specialised junctions between nerve cells called synapses. Our current understanding of the cellular mechanisms of such alterations is largely based on studies of neural tissue maintained in a culture dish. Here, I propose to learn and implement a technique that will permit sophisticated analysis of the mechanisms of synaptic change in whole animals, and test the accuracy of recent theories and data generated in culture conditions. The results will enhance our understanding of the neural mechanisms of memory, both in health and disease.

Public Summary: The civilization of Angkor (800-1450 AD) was one of the most remarkable of pre-industrial states. Its genesis has for long been ascribed to the influence of Indian merchants and missionaries on small and simple Southeast Asian communities. The “Indianisation” model, however, has been advanced without any knowledge of the indigenous societies on the eve of state formation.
This research involves the excavation and interpretation of prehistoric settlements, seeking evidence for increasing social complexity, craft specialization, war, water control and trade, all vital factors in the origins of civilization. Excavations are now yielding the evidence required to rewrite the origins of the most powerful of Southeast Asia’s states.