Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Searching for a human sensory ‘fingerprint’ – a personalised index of hedonic eating
Recipient(s): Dr M Peng | PI | University of Otago
Professor EA Franz | AI | University of Otago
Professor RSJ Keast | AI | Deakin University
Public Summary: Fighting against our human desire to over-eat is challenging in a world where food is becoming increasingly accessible, varied, and palatable. Recent data indicate that some people are particularly susceptible to ‘hedonic’ eating for pleasure. While this behaviour is thought to be related to brain networks responding to reward, it is unclear why food holds greater rewards for some people than for others. Because eating is a multi-sensory experience, we predict that the key to understanding this paradox may rest in looking at data across multiple senses. Indeed, tantalising new findings suggest the possibility that we each have a unique sensory ‘fingerprint’ that controls reward-related brain networks and determines individual susceptibility to over-eating. In this project, we will search for this fingerprint and unravel its relationship to hedonic eating using neuroimaging techniques and sensory analyses. This new interdisciplinary research approach promises to revolutionise our understanding of human eating behaviour.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr M Peng
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 17-UOO-020
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2015
Title: Searching for a shared world: the integration of prosody and word ordering in cross-linguistic speech perception
Recipient(s): Dr SA Calhoun | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Associate Professor E Vallduví | AI | Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Dr EK Kruse Va'ai | AI | Source unknown
Public Summary: Human dialogue involves negotiating a shared model of the world. We know that speakers use prosody (stress) and syntax to signal the focus of their message in relation to this model. For example, 'We like RUGBY' implies different things to 'It is RUGBY we like', as do 'Do you LOVE him?' and 'Do you love HIM?'. Research suggests focus is crucial in regulating attention in speech perception, yet we know remarkably little about how listeners interpret different cues to focus, and even less about how this works cross-linguistically. This research sheds light on this important area, through speech perception experiments using Samoan and English monolingual and bilingual speakers. Samoan and English are ideal to compare as they pattern oppositely in key ways: Samoan primarily uses syntax to mark focus (like the rugby example), while English primarily uses stress (like the love example). We will develop a model to explain how these cues are integrated in speech comprehension. We predict that the 'search for focus' is universal, but listeners interpret syntactic and prosodic cues differently in different languages. This research will also deepen our understanding of a major Polynesian language, Gagana Samoa, which is New Zealand's third-most spoken language.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr SA Calhoun
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 15-VUW-015
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Searching for needles in proteomic haystacks: an innovative approach for quantifying predictive biomarkers in cancer therapy
Recipient(s): Dr Y Gu | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr FB Pruijn | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Tumour hypoxia confers resistance to many standard-of-care anticancer therapies. Hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAPs) provide a promising solution, but require identifying tumours that are hypoxic, express appropriate prodrug-activating reductases, and comprise cells that are intrinsically sensitive to the active drug metabolite. A lack of biomarkers for these determinants of sensitivity currently hinders successful development of HAPs. In this proposal a multiplexed targeted proteomics technology, proteotypic peptide mass spectrometry (PTP-MS, a form of selected reaction monitoring-based proteomics) will be developed for the first time to profile reductases and other determinants of HAP sensitivity in tumour cell lines and xenograft models, enabling evaluation of complex biomarker sets in cancer patients. A key component will be the use of PTP-MS to interrogate the complete set of human flavoprotein reductases (flavoproteome) and identify a subset that is predictive for HAP activation. This study will expand our understanding of how these determinants interact to affect tumour sensitivity to HAPs and find sub-types of tumours in which HAPs will be effective, ultimately to identify individual patients in a personalised medicine context. The development of this revolutionary technology (Nature Method of the Year 2012) will also support its application in other areas of biomedical science in NZ.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr Y Gu
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 13-UOA-036
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Searching for sirtuins secrets in skeletal muscle
Recipient(s): Dr JA Edge | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr AE Civitarese | AI | Arizona State University
Dr VG Coffey | AI | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University
Public Summary: Mitochondrial function and adaptation is essential for human health and survival. The proposed research will provide information pertaining to the efficacy of SIRT1 as a therapeutic target for mitochondrial development. Muscle contraction, caloric restriction and the polyphenol compound-resveratrol are potent activators of SIRT1. Our research will explore the independent and synergistic impact of these interventions on the SIRT1 protein and mitochondrial adaptation in human muscle. While others in this area undertake research using animal and isolated cell culture systems, our approach is unique in that we will advance the understanding of SIRT1 using challenging translational and exploratory human studies.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr JA Edge
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 09-UOA-177
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: Secret world: security intelligence and state surveillance in New Zealand, 1907-2007
Recipient(s): Professor RS Hill | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr DH Burke | AI | University of Cambridge
Mr DJ Filer | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Public Summary: Recent events remind us that a history of security intelligence in New Zealand is timely. In 1907 NZ joined the international security intelligence community; in 2007, police raids in the Urewera and elsewhere focused public attention on secret surveillance of both Maori and Pakeha dissidence. In the century between, a number of domestic intelligence-gathering institutions were established and a significant amount of information on New Zealanders was collected and shared with international agencies. Coverage of this 'secret world' has been scant and generally non-scholarly, but new material enables production of an academic, internationally contextualised history of NZ security policing.
Total Awarded: $495,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Professor RS Hill
Panel: HUM
Project ID: 14-VUW-122
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Self-adaptive vibration energy harvesting based on nonlinear energy sink
Recipient(s): Dr L Tang | PI | University of Auckland
Professor K Liu | AI | Lakehead University
Public Summary: Annoying environmental vibrations could be transduced into useful electricity thanks to vibration energy harvesting technologies. These technologies have drawn increasing attention as enablers of self-sustained power supplies for small electronics, providing an eco-friendly alternative to batteries.
Conventional vibration energy harvesters can only work efficiently around mechanical resonance. We propose a nonlinear energy sink integrated with a piezoelectric transducer and energy harvesting circuit to enable efficient energy harvesting adaptive to a range of excitations (various frequencies under different excitation levels).
The nonlinear energy sink, conventionally used for vibration control, has no preferential resonant frequency, thanks to its essential nonlinearity. Vibration energy initially applied to a primary structure can be transferred and localized in the nonlinear energy sink via targeted energy transfer. This unique feature provides an opportunity to achieve efficient self-adaptive energy harvesting.
This research aims to understand the interaction between the energy harvesting process and the nonlinear dynamic behaviour in the proposed system, a crucial component for self-adaptive energy harvesting. Fundamental new knowledge of the activation of targeted energy transfer and energy localization, and the sensitivity of the system to excitation after the integration will be unveiled in this project.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr L Tang
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 17-UOA-022
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2011
Title: Self-propelling, coalescing droplets
Recipient(s): Dr M Sellier | PI | University of Canterbury
Assoc Prof RA Archer | AI | The University of Auckland
Prof C Verdier | AI | Universite Joseph Fourier Grenoble I and CNRS
Public Summary: Digital microfluidic devices play an ever increasing role in nano- and biotechnologies. These rely
on the micromanipulation of discrete droplets which are transported, stored, mixed, reacted, or
analyzed in a discrete manner. One of the key challenges is to transport them in an efficient and
reliable way. This research proposes to investigate experimentally and numerically a previously
unexplored propulsion mechanism which relies on the induction of a surface tension gradient in the
droplet by mixing droplets of different substances having a large surface tension contrast. This new
mechanism offers the advantage of being a lot less demanding in terms of microfabrication
technologies.
Total Awarded: $293,649
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Dr M Sellier
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 11-UOC-105
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Selling New China to New Zealand: Rewi Alley and the art of museum diplomacy
Recipient(s): Dr RV Bullen | PI | University of Canterbury
Dr JJ Beattie | PI | University of Waikato
Public Summary: The Rewi Alley Collection of Canterbury Museum, New Zealand, is unique as an overseas collection assembled with the official sanction of the Chinese Government for the purpose of favourably presenting ‘New China’ to the West. Our three-year project represents the first research ever conducted on this internationally significant collection of Chinese art and material culture. It will also be the first study to explore the historical relationship between material culture and Chinese ‘cultural diplomacy.’ Analysis of the Rewi Alley Collection of Chinese artefacts will generate new knowledge on the role of Chinese art in communist cultural diplomacy. Specifically, the project will examine: 1) the scope of the Collection and its strengths; 2) why and how it developed; 3) the extent to which its range, content and exhibition encouraged favourable perceptions of ‘New China’ in New Zealand. In analysing its changing reception over time and between cultures as an example of cultural diplomacy, we will establish and employ innovative, overlapping methodologies to analyse objects, archives, published sources, and exhibitions. Project findings, resulting in multiple publications, an online database and an exhibition, will significantly advance knowledge in the areas of Chinese art history and exhibition history, diplomatic history, and New Zealand-China relations.
Total Awarded: $434,783
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Dr RV Bullen
Panel: HUM
Project ID: 13-UOC-082
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2016
Title: Semiconductor Catenation using Catalysis
Recipient(s): Dr EM Leitao | PI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Polymers featuring a long chain of carbon-based monomers linked together are ubiquitous. From textiles, to electronics, to packaging, to structural materials, we see and use these daily. Substituting the carbon (C) atoms with silicon (Si) in the polymer backbone, will allow the creation of new materials with exciting properties, such as electrical conductivity.
The goal is to develop robust polysilanes, polymers with a long chain, all Si-backbone, prepared by using a catalyst to control the synthesis from silane monomer building blocks. Substituted polysilanes can currently only be formed as short chain, ill-defined polymers in an uncontrolled manner. The limitations are due to cleavage of the Si-Si and Si-C bonds and the lack of effective catalysts.
This proposal aims to address both these limitations. The Si-Si bonds in the polymer will be reinforced by connecting adjacent silicon atoms using bridges through cleverly designed disilane building blocks. New, more effective catalysts will be developed by first exploring the mechanisms by which the current catalysts operate, and will allow finer control of polysilane synthesis. Together these two approaches will result in long-chain, robust Si-based polymers with well-defined properties, leading to materials more amenable to fabrication in devices than any polysilane presently available.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr EM Leitao
Panel: PCB
Project ID: 16-UOA-042
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Semiconductor-based spintronics: can rare-earth nitrides and group III-nitrides get it together?
Recipient(s): Dr F Natali | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr B Damilano | AI | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Dr SE Granville | AI | Callaghan Innovation
Dr NOV Plank | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr BJ Ruck | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Professor HJ Trodahl | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr S Vezian | AI | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Public Summary: Semiconductor-based spintronics is seen as a significant paradigm shift in the field of electronics which takes full advantage of not only the charge, but also the intrinsic magnetic properties of the electron (the 'spin'). It is expected that these new devices can outclass existing electronics regarding speed and power consumption. Development of this field relies on the synthesis of new materials combining ferromagnetic and semiconductor properties. The search for such materials is long-standing but we have recently demonstrated that rare-earth nitride (REN) compounds offer both characteristics with inherently complementary magnetic and electronic properties that provide interesting contrasts. However such utterly unique properties have yet to be exploited. Here we will use our fundamental understanding of the REN properties and our ability to grow high quality thin films to explore and fabricate new proof of concept spintronics devices. Our approach will aim at combining the RENs with the mature group-III nitride technology to take the best characteristics of both materials and thus lay the foundation for the development of a sustainable technological platform for semiconductor-based spintronics.
Total Awarded: $782,609
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr F Natali
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 13-VUW-186