Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Role of host cell polarised exocytosis in spread of bacterial pathogens
Recipient(s): Dr KP Ireton | PI | University of Otago
Public Summary: Many bacterial pathogens actively promote their spreading between human cells. One of the key events in spreading of these pathogens is the formation of ‘protrusions’- bacteria enclosed in extensions of the host plasma membrane. Overall, mechanisms of protrusion formation are not well understood. Listeria monocytogenes is an important bacterial cause of food-borne illnesses. Protrusion formation and spread of Listeria in the intestinal epithelium is likely critical for disease. Our preliminary data indicate that Listeria protrusion formation requires several host proteins that promote polarized exocytosis in the human cell. Polarized exocytosis is the fusion of cytoplasmic vesicles with select regions of the plasma membrane. Our findings have led to the novel hypothesis that formation of Listeria protrusions may involve the localized insertion of host membrane, thereby providing membrane and/or human proteins needed for protrusion production. We will use genetic and microscopy -based approaches to test this hypothesis. Specifically, we will determine if the human exocyst, a protein complex involved in polarized exocytosis, is required for Listeria spreading. In addition, we will examine if Listeria protrusions are active sites of exocytosis.
Total Awarded: $760,870
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr KP Ireton
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 13-UOO-085
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Role of the extracellular matrix in regulating myelination deficits following ischemia in preterm infants
Recipient(s): Dr JM Dean | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor AJ Gunn | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: The white matter regions of the brain are important for transferring signals between different brain structures. For rapid movement of these brain signals, cells in the white matter called oligodendrocytes produce an insulating material called myelin. In preterm born babies, oligodendrocytes show a particular vulnerability to injury resulting from low brain blood flow, leading to loss of myelin and cerebral palsy, a devastating lifelong movement disorder for which there is no cure. Therefore, there is a need for new therapies. In humans, although oligodendrocytes are easily killed, we now know that they rapidly grow back. Strikingly, for unknown reasons these new oligodendrocytes fail to properly mature, and do not produce myelin, in areas of injury. We have new evidence that a molecule called hyaluronan is highly upregulated in preterm white matter injury, and that hyaluronan may be the cause of failure of oligodendrocytes to produce myelin. In this proposal, we will examine how hyaluronan triggers myelin deficits in the preterm brain, and whether inhibiting hyaluronan will promote myelin formation. This new knowledge will further our understanding of the causes of cerebral palsy in preterm infants, and provide potential treatment strategies in this large group of children.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr JM Dean
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 13-UOA-165
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Rota's conjecture for the five-element field
Recipient(s): Dr D Mayhew | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Public Summary: Rota's conjecture states that there are only finitely many minimal obstacles to representability over a finite field. This has been proved for the two-, three-, and four-element fields. These are amongst the best-known results in matroid theory. We believe that we can make significant progress towards resolving Rota's conjecture for the five-element field.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr D Mayhew
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 09-VUW-036
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Ruamoko's rumbles: understanding magma movement and time varying seismic properties
Recipient(s): Professor MK Savage | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr Y Aoki | AI | University of Tokyo
Dr F Brenguier | AI | Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
Dr AD Jolly | AI | GNS Science
Dr DC Roman | AI | University of South Florida
Dr CA Williams | AI | GNS Science
Public Summary: Predicting volcanic eruptions remains a key goal of geophysical research. We have shown that several seismologically measureable parameters--including the speeds at which seismic waves propagate in different directions and the rates at which they lose energy--change before and during volcanic eruptions and vary systematically with GPS measurements of expanding and contracting volcanoes. This project will develop new methods of monitoring volcanoes using novel sources of seismic energy: repeating earthquakes and the earth's background hum. By focusing on these sources, we will be able to distinguish temporal changes in seismic properties related to specific volcanic processes from background signals.
Total Awarded: $640,889
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Professor MK Savage
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 09-VUW-028
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2015
Title: Salinity tolerance and betalain pigments: unlocking how an extraordinary plant alkaloid combats salt stress
Recipient(s): Professor KS Gould | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr KE Schwinn | PI | Plant and Food Research
Associate Professor KG Ryan | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr KM Davies | AI | Plant and Food Research
Public Summary: Red betalain pigments could hold the key to an undiscovered mechanism that allows plants to tolerate salt stress. Saline soils are a significant threat to food production and environmental sustainability. Land clearance, irrigation, and rising sea levels have dramatically increased the salinity levels in soils, especially in parts of Australia, USA and India, imposing a severe constraint on the yields of traditional crops, and altering the biodiversity of natural plant communities. We have found that the native New Zealand iceplant changes from salt-intolerant to highly tolerant when we induce the production of red betalain pigments in its leaves. Salt seems to be drawn to the pigmented epidermal cells, thereby protecting underlying tissues from damage. We hypothesise that the synthesis of these pigments modifies sodium transport systems. To test this, we will track Na+ movement across membranes, analyse gene expression under salinity stress, and transfer production of this pigment into ion-transporter mutants of the salt-sensitive model, Arabidopsis. There is concerted worldwide effort to introduce genes for salinity tolerance into plants; this overlooked pigment pathway offers hitherto unexplored possibilities for developing much-needed salt-tolerant crops. Unlocking a new mechanism for salt tolerance represents a major breakthrough in plant stress physiology.
Total Awarded: $810,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Professor KS Gould
Panel: CMP
Project ID: 15-VUW-027
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: Samoan transnational matai (titled chiefs): ancestor god 'avatars' or merely title-holders?
Recipient(s): Dr MS Anae | PI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: The central question driving this research is “Do transnational matai (chiefs) especially those born in western metropoles maintain meaningful and sustainable ties to families and villages in Samoa?” While there is increasing global concern about the ‘erosion’ of the faamatai (chiefly roles and practices), there is a need for more evidence of how transnational matai experience and practise faamatai and their roles and obligations to aiga (families) and villages in their host nations and Samoa, to better understand both the potential and risks associated with this. The experiences of settler transnationals and their children regarding their ties to their global families and villages in Samoa provide an optimum socio anthropological case for studying global culture change. This research will extend conceptualisation of transnational faamatai by building on fieldwork at three global study sites and using a novel qualitative dual methodology that brings in the perspectives of inter-generational transnational matai. Responding to a recognised lacunae in the literature, this research moves beyond polarised political economy analyses of the faamatai and will examine the value of these experiences and activities from the transcultural perspectives of these affected cohorts, and advance theorisation of transnational matai as a viable network of exchange and connection.
Total Awarded: $705,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr MS Anae
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 14-UOA-021
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Sampling from probability distributions arising in inverse problems
Recipient(s): Assoc Prof C Fox | PI | University of Otago
Prof JA Christen | AI | Centro de Investigacion en Matematicas
Public Summary: Inverse problems occur throughout science when measurements are made via a physical process and inferring parameters of interest presents difficulties. Bayesian inference provides a framework for quantifying uncertainties in inverse problems, while the Markov chain Monte Carlo methods provide the capability to actually compute the quantities that arise. John von Neumann, who invented the Monte Carlo methods, said “anyone using Monte Carlo is in a state of sin”, because they approximate analytic expressions by averages. Nevertheless, Markov chain Monte Carlo is now one of the pillars of computational science, and has revolutionized statistics.
All existing algorithms use Metropolis-Hastings dynamics, which is inefficient for inverse problems. The lack of computational speed is not just an inconvenience; it is now one of the basic limitations in many areas of science that present inverse problems. In this research, we propose to adapt sophisticated ideas developed for high-dimensional optimization such as quasi-Newton methods, polynomial acceleration, trust regions, and Krylov spaces to the efficient sampling of probability distributions arising in inverse problems. These methods could revolutionize current engineering applications.
Total Awarded: $404,348
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Assoc Prof C Fox
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 10-UOO-221
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Saving energy versus making yourself understood during speech production
Recipient(s): Dr DJ Derrick | PI | University of Canterbury
Public Summary: Speakers sometimes move their tongues in completely different directions for different repetitions of exactly the same phrase. The cause of this variability is examined by comparing speech energy efficiency vs. producing clear speech. The first experiment records audio and tongue motion of New Zealand English (NZE) speakers induced to speak at progressively faster speeds, and the second uses the audio recordings to test whether easier to produce sequences are harder to understand. This is the first articulatory phonetics study of NZE. This study will extend research into categorical shift in skeletal motion (i.e. walking and running in humans) to speech, answer long-standing questions about the role of phrase planning in low-level speech articulation, expand our understanding of speech ecology, and ultimately lead to better speech recognition systems.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Dr DJ Derrick
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 12-UOC-081
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Scaling limits and super-Brownian motion
Recipient(s): Dr MP Holmes | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr JA Goodman | AI | Universiteit Leiden
Professor EA Perkins | AI | The University of British Columbia
Professor RW van der Hofstad | AI | Eindhoven University of Technology
Public Summary: The contact process is a mathematical model for the spread of infection in space and time. The voter model is a mathematical model for the spread of opinion, and lattice trees are a model for branched polymers. Each model involves a number of particles that interact with each other. The interaction makes them very hard to study, and as such very little is known about them in 2 and 3 dimensions. We will study the long-run behaviour of processes of this type, and in particular prove the ``central limit theorem'' for such objects in high dimensions. These results shed light on questions of the form: how likely is it that an infection survives in the population for a long time, and if it does how far will it typically have spread?
Total Awarded: $347,826
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr MP Holmes
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 13-UOA-169
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Sea-level is not level: unraveling the drivers of spatial and temporal variations in past sea-level changes around the New Zealand coast
Recipient(s): Dr AJH Clement | PI | Massey University Manawatu
Dr PL Whitehouse | AI | Durham University
Public Summary: Relative sea-level is not level, but varies over time and space. Knowledge of how sea-level changed around New Zealand during the postglacial period of the past 10,000 years is extremely limited. Extending a recent pilot study, this research aims to reconstruct variability in sea-level changes around New Zealand during this period to determine the processes driving this variability. We will investigate two hypothesised drivers: meltwater loading on the continental shelf around New Zealand; and rebound of the South Island in response to postglacial melting of the Southern Alps icefield. We will use fossil shells preserved in coastal environments to reconstruct postglacial sea-level changes and characterise sea-level variability around New Zealand. To resolve our hypotheses we will analyse these records using a geophysical model of the Earth’s response to changes in ice and meltwater loading during the postglacial. This model allows us to decouple the land and ocean components of sea-level variability in order to isolate the driving processes. This work will provide new insights into the postglacial development of New Zealand’s coastal environments, informing studies of coastal tectonic movements, predictions of future coastal change, and global research into the melting of continental ice sheets.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: Massey University Manawatu
Contact Person: Dr AJH Clement
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 17-MAU-139