Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2008
Title: The diabetic heart under the mathematical microscope
Recipient(s): Dr V Rajagopal | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr BJ Marsh | AI | The University of Queensland
Public Summary: The aim is to develop the first 3D computational models of the structure (such as organelles, and membranes) and the process of excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) in cardiac cells to understand the mechanisms underlying cardiac function in health and diabetes-induced cardiac disease. 3D geometric models of normal and diabetic rat cells will be created using electron tomography data, with the distributions of proteins involved in ECC acquired using confocal microscopy and mapped onto the geometric models. ECC will then be simulated using finite element modelling techniques to provide the most complete picture of the working cardiac cell in health and disease.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr V Rajagopal
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 08-UOA-071
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2008
Title: The dynamics of spatially compressed food webs
Recipient(s): Assoc Prof AR McIntosh | PI | University of Canterbury
Dr RM Thompson | AI | Monash University
Public Summary: Biodiversity declines associated with habitat loss could be driven by smaller habitats having less stable food webs. We propose that spatial compression of habitats which reduces predator movement, restricts renewal of prey resources and limits refuge for prey, intensifies species interactions reducing food web stability. Streams offer excellent opportunities for natural size-based experiments, and detailed knowledge of New Zealand stream food webs suggests larger streams are able to support proportionally more predator biomass, implying they are more stable. We will test how habitat size influences food web stability using replicated experiments across streams of different sizes and streams contracted due to lowered flows.
Total Awarded: $655,111
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Assoc Prof AR McIntosh
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 08-UOC-023
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2015
Title: The ethics of research on clinical data and tissue without explicit patient consent
Recipient(s): Dr AJ Ballantyne | PI | University of Otago
Associate Professor A Moore | AI | University of Otago
Professor R Faden | AI | Johns Hopkins University
Public Summary: Good quality healthcare depends on medical research. One potentially valuable and under-utilised source of research data is patients' clinical information and tissue samples. Access to this clinical information could support research on which treatments work in real clinical settings with real patients, rather than the controlled and artificial environments of research trials. Yet clinical data and tissue are not routinely used for research. Why not? First many people assume that patients own, and should control access to their clinical information; and second, many assume that research participation must be voluntary. Unfortunately, in many cases, getting consent is too expensive or would undermine the methodology of the research. In this project, I contest both these common assumptions. In their place, I develop a new framework of ethical research using clinical data without patient consent and determine how to best implement this model in order to maximise the social utility of research and minimise the potential harms. I investigate whether patients have a general reciprocal obligation to support the research that supports their medical care; and whether clinical information is co-constructed through a collaborative process involving the patient, doctor and health system.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr AJ Ballantyne
Panel: HUM
Project ID: 15-UOO-171
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: The evolution of animal genitalia: does sexual conflict drive the rapid evolution of complex male structures of moths?
Recipient(s): Dr GI Holwell | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr TR Buckley | AI | Landcare Research
Dr RJB Hoare | AI | Landcare Research
Public Summary: The rapid and divergent evolution of male genitalia is a frequently observed pattern in the animal kingdom. While sexual selection appears to be important, the precise mechanisms involved remain elusive. One of the most promising hypotheses to explain this pattern is that sexual conflict drives genital evolution via opposing selection on male and female reproductive strategies. We will combine single-species and comparative approaches to test the predictions of the sexual conflict hypothesis utilizing the New Zealand endemic moth genus Izatha. Males possess elaborate genitalia with detachable spines, and are excellent candidates to investigate the process of sexually antagonistic coevolution.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr GI Holwell
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 09-UOA-130
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: The evolution of biosynthetic pathways and metabolism
Recipient(s): Professor VL Arcus | PI | University of Waikato
Dr WM Patrick | PI | University of Otago
Professor EJ Parker | AI | University of Canterbury
Public Summary: Even the most primitive living cells carry out a bewildering array of complex chemical reactions catalysed by a network of enzymes. Whilst it is straightforward to envisage the evolution of one enzyme, it is vastly more complex to envisage the evolution of a network of enzymes that facilitate cellular metabolism. The constraints on the evolution of a network may be quite different from those of a single enzyme. We will watch the evolution of a metabolic network in the laboratory by resurrecting ancient enzymes from two metabolic pathways, and placing these ancient pathways into modern organisms.
Total Awarded: $739,130
Duration: 3
Host: University of Waikato
Contact Person: Professor VL Arcus
Panel: PCB
Project ID: 13-UOW-023
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: The evolution of intelligence: evaluating the heritability and fitness consequences of cognition in wild North Island robins
Recipient(s): Dr RC Shaw | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Associate Professor KC Burns | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Professor NS Clayton | AI | University of Cambridge
Public Summary: To understand how intelligence evolves, we must address the critical gap in our knowledge of the relationship between reproductive success and cognition. For intelligence to evolve by natural selection, differences in cognitive abilities must be associated with differential reproductive success and have a heritable component that is transmitted to offspring. Investigating the fitness consequences and heritability of cognition in wild animals is challenging and has rarely been attempted. However, wild North Island robins are ideal for this research. Robins readily participate in experiments; previous studies of wild robins reveal flexible foraging behaviour and sophisticated numerical cognition. We will quantify individual differences in several cognitive traits using multiple behavioural-based cognition experiments. This will permit investigation into whether particular traits are more strongly associated with reproductive success in robins and whether robins possess a general cognitive ability (analogous to human IQ). We will monitor subjects’ breeding attempts and evaluate the relationship between cognitive ability and reproductive success. We will compare parent and offspring performance in the cognitive experiments to establish a baseline for heritability experiments. Our research will elucidate the role of cognition in robins’ lives and will ultimately develop a model system for studying the evolution of intelligence in the wild.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr RC Shaw
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 13-VUW-176
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2008
Title: The evolution of multicellularity
Recipient(s): Prof PB Rainey | PI | Massey University
Dr B Kerr | PI | University of Washington
Public Summary: The origin of multicellularity is one of the most perplexing and exciting problems in biology. Recent empirical work has led to recognition of shortcomings with existing theory. Together the applicants have formulated a radically new theory, which shows that tension among levels of selection can fuel (rather than impede) transitions in individuality. A key realization is that the fitness of higher and lower levels is intimately linked so that cells at each level can be considered different stages of a life cycle. This proposal seeks to extend recent theory; test key predictions and experimentally recreate an evolutionary transition.
Total Awarded: $1,217,004
Duration: 3
Host: Massey University
Contact Person: Prof PB Rainey
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 08-MAU-102
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: The evolution of the functional diversity of forests
Recipient(s): Professor SI Higgins | PI | University of Otago
Associate Professor DJ Bryant | PI | University of Otago
Professor T Hickler | AI | Goethe University Frankfurt/Main
Public Summary: The study of biodiversity is biased towards species diversity even though functional diversity, the diversity of roles that species play, is fundamental to human welfare and earth system functioning. A paradox is that species diversification does not necessarily lead to an increase in functional diversity since an increase in species number can be supported by packing more species into a fixed niche volume and by expanding a niche volume. We will study conifer and angiosperm forest tree lineages and expose the mechanisms by which niche geometry and trait evolution interact to determine the evolution of functional diversity.
Total Awarded: $808,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Professor SI Higgins
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 14-UOO-251
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: The final stages of the Hawking evaporation of black holes
Recipient(s): Professor M Visser | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Public Summary: Stephen Hawking predicted in 1974 that black holes are not entirely black; they are emitting radiation and slowly evaporating due to subtle quantum physics effects. The final stages of this process, when the black hole has become relatively small, continue to generate much heated debate and confusion even after 40 years of intensive research. I plan a renewed attack on this issue based on a three-fold approach: (1) carefully distinguishing the various types of horizon that can occur, (event horizons are merely one of the options), and the implications of other types of horizon for the internal structure of black holes, (2) investigating the quantum (not classical) energy conditions, and their implications for the existence of and the properties of spacetime singularities and the internal structure of black holes, and (3) a careful reanalysis of both the differences and similarities between black hole thermodynamics and ordinary thermodynamics.
Total Awarded: $538,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Professor M Visser
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 14-VUW-084
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2016
Title: The genes of life and death: a role for placental-specific genes in cancer?
Recipient(s): Professor MR Eccles | PI | University of Otago
Dr A Chatterjee | AI | University of Otago
Dr EC Macaulay | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: Invasive cancers are hard to treat. If we determine how cancer cells become invasive, then we will discover new strategies for early diagnosis or treatment. Good models for cancer invasion in humans are rare, but remarkably, the human placenta could be an excellent model for cancer because of its invasive features. The placenta invades the adjacent uterus, like cancer erodes into surrounding organs. It also takes hold of the immune system to prevent rejection of the fetus, just like cancer controls the local immune response. Intriguingly, placental and cancer cells share a genetic phenomenon that we do not understand - they fail to silence virus derived DNA sequences, known as retrotransposons, that are normally silenced in healthy tissues. Retrotransposon unsilencing is usually associated with gene disruption, sometimes causing cancer. However, in the placenta, retrotransposon unsilencing creates new genes that are essential for placental function. We have evidence that these placental genes are activated in cancer, and believe retrotransposons may offer powerful perspectives on cancer prevention and treatment. By using the placenta as a model for malignancy, we aim to determine the implications of retrotransposon activity in cancer and expect to identify new genes that control cancer invasion.
Total Awarded: $825,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Professor MR Eccles
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 16-UOO-178