Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Troubling ‘choice’. Exploring and explaining techniques of moral reasoning for people living at the intersection of reproductive technologies, genetics, and disability
Recipient(s): Dr RP Fitzgerald | PI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof M Legge | PI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof JK Park | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr MG Bell | AI | University of Otago
Ms M Kawharu | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Reproductive decisions such as whether to terminate a pregnancy or to give birth to a child with genetic anomalies are often made rapidly in real life. To decide what to do, people have no time to study for a bioethics degree; instead they must rely on the moral toolkit they have at hand. The ‘right to choose’ seems an inappropriate framing of their dilemma since their choices are so few, and rights are based in notions of individualism while decisions about the expression of genetic difference always affect more than one person. Providing choice for women in these situations is also presented as the moral impetus for their work by scientists who shape, through genetic profiling and genetic testing of embryos, the broader social group ‘the disabled’. This project both explores and explains what we call the 'everyday ethics' of people in such situations. Using ethnographic interviewing and prior studies, with national and international comparison, we explain and explore the actual concepts that different publics use to make a series of individual reproductive decisions that can affect the wider society, and which often have the power to override formal ethical governance. Our findings will be disseminated to diverse audiences.
Total Awarded: $639,130
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr RP Fitzgerald
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 10-UOO-013
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Truth for peace – an evaluation of the outcomes and impacts of the Solomon Islands’ TRC on attitudes towards peace
Recipient(s): Dr KD Brounéus | PI | University of Otago
Public Summary: Truth and reconciliation commissions (TRC) play a pivotal role in post-conflict peacebuilding processes around the world, yet research on their effectiveness is lacking. This study will be the first to use a before–after design to assess the effects of a TRC process in both women and men and will thereby be breaking new ground within the field of transitional justice. Through surveys and interviews, the project will follow the Solomon Islands TRC, examining the effect of the TRC on people’s attitudes concerning trust, coexistence, peace, and security. Based on previous research, the following three hypotheses will be tested: (H1) Over time, hearing TRC testimonies will lead to more reconciliatory attitudes and behaviour in people who were not directly affected by the violence during the conflict; (H2) Due to the types of violence women are subjected to in and after war, the TRC process will involve more challenges and risks for women than for men; and (H3) The TRC hearings will lead to incidents of threat and violence against witnesses in their home communities. Knowledge on the effects of TRCs is essential so that these processes can be designed to build sustainable peace, minimizing potential risks for those participating.
Total Awarded: $257,391
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr KD Brounéus
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 10-UOO-038
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Tying knots in proteins with chlorine bleach: novel post-translational modifications catalysed by mammalian peroxidases
Recipient(s): Professor AJ Kettle | PI | University of Otago
Professor CC Winterbourn | PI | University of Otago
Dr P Nagy | AI | The National Institute of Oncology in Hungary
Professor C Obinger | AI | BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences
Professor MC Vissers | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: Haem peroxidases are ubiquitous in biology and use hydrogen peroxide to promote a vast array of essential oxidative reactions. Myeloperoxidase is the most characterised mammalian peroxidase. It is a major protein in white blood cells and converts hydrogen peroxide and chloride to chlorine bleach or hypochlorous acid. White blood cells use chlorine bleach to kill bacteria but it also promotes tissue damage during inflammation. It is toxic because it oxidizes myriad biological molecules; particularly methionine and cysteine residues in proteins. Recently, we found that it couples methionine or cysteine residues to juxtaposed amine groups, forming irreversible cross links. We will assess whether these cross links are formed by white blood cells and exacerbate inflammatory pathologies. Another human peroxidase, peroxidasin, has just been discovered to catalyse similar indispensable structural cross links between methionine and lysine residues in adjacent strands of collagen. However, there are uncertainties about how peroxidasin promotes these cross links. The major conundrums concerning peroxidasin that we will address are what hypohalous acid does it generate to tie the cross links, where is it active, and does it promote post-translational cross links in other proteins. We predict that mammalian peroxidases use hypohalous acids to tie knots in many proteins.
Total Awarded: $847,826
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Professor AJ Kettle
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 13-UOO-200
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Ultrafast electron dynamics in molecular semiconductors
Recipient(s): Dr JM Hodgkiss | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Public Summary: This project will use exceptionally short laser pulses in order to study ultrafast electron dynamics in organic solar cells. Many organic molecules and polymers have an electronic structure similar to inorganic semiconductors such as silicon – the material most widely used in today’s solar cells. But the propensity of electrons to be shared and transferred between individual molecular components varies widely and is poorly understood. Understanding the pathways by which light absorption triggers the release of tightly bound electrons holds the key to the widespread deployment of organic semiconductors in printable solar cells.
This project tackles the problem by zooming in to femtosecond timescales (millionths of a billionth of a second) to directly explore the transfer of electrons. We will measure the interaction of timed sequences of laser pulses with electrons on ultrafast timescales. In doing so, we will capture snapshots of the dynamically changing electronic landscape in molecular semiconductors. Our aim is to determine whether photocurrent generation in organic solar cells can be explained by ultrafast bursts of electronic dynamics.
Total Awarded: $260,870
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr JM Hodgkiss
Panel: PCB
Project ID: 10-VUW-112
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Ultralight Dark Matter: Dynamics and Astrophysics
Recipient(s): Professor RJM Easther | PI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Dark matter accounts for the formation, evolution and dynamics of galaxies but its nature and physical composition is completely mysterious. We will investigate the behaviour and observable signatures of ultralight dark matter, a fascinating scenario with the capacity to resolve key challenges that stand in the way of a detailed understanding of dark matter dynamics, with broad implications for both the evolution of galaxies and theories of fundamental particle physics. We will do this by developing state of the art computational tools for simulating the astrophysical dynamics of ultralight dark matter, and use these to identify the observational signatures associated with this scenario. These signatures can provide definitive tests of ultralight dark matter models, a result that would have major implications for astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology.
Total Awarded: $910,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Professor RJM Easther
Panel: PCB
Project ID: 17-UOA-304
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Uncorking the hydrate bottle: Release of methane from melting gas hydrates during glacial cycles on the Chatham Rise, New Zealand
Recipient(s): Dr IA Pecher | PI | GNS Science
Dr AR Gorman | PI | University of Otago
Dr H Abuel-Naga | AI | The University of Auckland
Prof C Berndt | AI | University of Kiel
Dr JMK Bialas | AI | University of Kiel
Dr B Davy | AI | GNS Science
Dr GJ Moridis | AI | Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Dr H Neil | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr MT Reagan | AI | Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Dr GJ Rickard | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Public Summary: Large quantities of methane are stored beneath the seafloor in ice-like gas hydrates. Gas hydrate stability depends on pressure and temperature and thus, vast amounts of methane may be released from melting hydrates during climate change with potentially significant environmental implications. Much of the released methane may be oxidized in the ocean contributing to ocean acidification. If methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, reaches the atmosphere, it may accelerate global warming. We have discovered a unique area east of New Zealand’s South Island with evidence for past methane release from gas hydrates. Seafloor depressions over an area of >20,000 km2 appear to have formed as a result of significant quantities of gas expelled from dissociating hydrates during glacial-interglacial cycles. We propose to study the formation of these features to better understand climate-driven methane release from hydrates. Our research will involve two cruises in collaboration with international partners to map and sample the inferred gas-escape features. Geophysical, geochemical, paleoceanographic, and geomechanical analyses will allow reconstruction and timing of glacial gas-escape events. Results from these studies will provide calibration for modelling the response of the gas hydrate reservoir to past and possible future climatic changes.
Total Awarded: $717,391
Duration: 3
Host: GNS Science
Contact Person: Dr IA Pecher
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 10-GNS-029
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Uncorking volcanoes - the textural evolution of volcanic plugs
Recipient(s): Dr B Kennedy | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor JW Cole | AI | University of Canterbury
Professor DB Dingwell | AI | University of Munich
Dr ARL Nichols | AI | Institute for Research on Earth Evolution
Public Summary: Volcanic plugs, similarly to corks in champagne bottles, allow pressure to build up in volcanoes. The crystal, bubble, crack, and gas content are the critical plug properties that control volcano explosivity. However, how these properties develop as the plug solidifies or remelts remains poorly understood. A state of the art high temperature and pressure vessel will be used to investigate changes in properties and pressure in rocks from volcanic plugs. This will be complemented by textural fieldwork on volcanic plugs. The results will be invaluable to hazard mitigation and eruption modelling for volcanic eruptions in New Zealand.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Dr B Kennedy
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 09-UOC-017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Uncountable structures and effective properties
Recipient(s): Professor N Greenberg | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Professor S Shelah | AI | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Public Summary: Model theory, set theory and computability theory are areas of mathematical logic that have diverged over the years. Nonetheless, basic core ideas are common to all three, above all, the treatment of language as a mathematical object that can be studied formally and used to gain important insights about algebra, computable processes, and the foundations of mathematics. This project aims to develop new connections between these areas. We will use a generalisation of computability to uncountable domains to study algebraic objects such as groups, and general classification of mathematical structures. We examine standard Turing computability in contrast with its generalisations; this allows us to separate the incidental from the fundamental in classical results.
Approximation techniques common to both set theory and computability allow us to make connections between regularity properties of the real numbers, on the one hand, and the computational power of these numbers, on the other. For example, identifying patterns in all algorithmically defined numbers is closely related to the number of statistical tests (null sets) required to capture all real numbers. We aim to identify the rules that govern these connections and apply these to solve open problems.
Total Awarded: $660,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Professor N Greenberg
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 17-VUW-090
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Uncovering regulatory networks controlling CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity
Recipient(s): Associate Professor PC Fineran | PI | University of Otago
Associate Professor PP Gardner | AI | University of Canterbury
Public Summary: Bacteria are constantly exposed to invasive elements, such as viruses and plasmids, and these interactions are key factors in global nutrient cycles, the emergence of pathogens and spread of antibiotic resistance. To protect themselves from these invaders, bacteria have CRISPR-Cas adaptive immune systems, which provide sequence-specific heritable memory of past infections. Immunity relies on the acquisition of ‘memory’ sequences from the invader, which produce short guide RNAs that assist Cas proteins in recognition and destruction of complementary invader genomes. Despite the obvious immune benefits, carriage of these systems can be costly for bacteria. For example, errors in ‘memory’ generation can often result in autoimmunity against the host bacterial chromosome. We propose that extensive regulatory networks exist to maximise CRISPR-Cas immunity when bacteria would be most vulnerable to infection, while also limiting activity when least required – to mitigate autoimmunity. Regulation of CRISPR-Cas activity is poorly understood, and in general there is a paucity of high-throughput approaches to comprehensively identify mutations influencing bacterial gene expression. We will develop and utilise a state-of-the-art single-cell method of broad applicability that combines fluorescent reporters, transposon mutagenesis, fluorescence activated cell sorting and high-throughput sequencing to uncover the pathways involved in the regulation of CRISPR-Cas activity.
Total Awarded: $945,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Associate Professor PC Fineran
Panel: CMP
Project ID: 17-UOO-050
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: Uncovering the hidden secrets of rivers: the role of interlayer structures
Recipient(s): Dr H Friedrich | PI | The University of Auckland
Associate Professor P Delmas | AI | The University of Auckland
Professor AN Papanicolaou | AI | The University of Tennessee
Public Summary: Rivers act as the Earth’s routing and digestive systems, a key role in natural environments. As such, rivers not only transport water, but also move sediment. Nowhere is this more evident than in New Zealand with its extreme flood-induced sediment loads. Despite the importance of sediment transport, we know far more about the flow itself than the flow-sediment interactions that take place at the grain scale on the riverbed. Gaining greater insight into the inner workings of riverine transport is a vital component to engineering environments that can better cope with extreme flooding events.
In this project we will quantify a natural riverbed surface/sub-surface to study layer dynamics that control sediment storage and release mechanisms. Our key tool is our specifically-engineered close-range 3D stereo-vision system for gravel-bed studies. This system integrates world-leading abilities in texture and context-based image matching algorithms. Our study will provide new insights into how the grain-scale roughness affects the overall system. The findings will be incorporated in computational modelling that will inform river management strategies. With floods being New Zealand’s most common natural hazard, and set to occur more frequently, this work is well-placed to improve our ability to predict the effects of such changes.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr H Friedrich
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 14-UOA-302