Vital funds for NZ’s boldest studies
Can we save the kauri? This is one of the questions that $85m in grants awarded through the Marsden Fund will enable our brightest minds to answer. Jamie Morton looks at seven of 136 new projects
The Marsden Fund is administered by Royal Society Te Apa¯rangi on behalf of the Government and is designed to help our top researchers develop their most ambitious and exciting ideas.
“This ‘blue-sky’ funding is vital to ensuring a vibrant research culture in our country, and the resulting work will help us better understand our environment and society,” said Marsden Fund Council chairman Professor David Bilkey. “Some of these fundamental discoveries will also lead to new, and sometimes unexpected, solutions to current problems, in areas as diverse as healthcare, sustainability and social policy.”
Eighty-three grants have been awarded to established researchers in this year’s Marsden Fund round, while grants to early career researchers have risen from 49 last year to 53 in 2018.
1 Untangling the link between self-injury and suicide
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of youth suicide — and rates are particularly appalling among Ma¯ori and Pasifika.
Another alarming statistic: half of young Kiwis engage in non-suicidal self-injury such as cutting. Research has shown that self-injurious thoughts and behaviour can predict suicidal thoughts and behaviour. Yet the causal link between non-suicidal self-injury and suicide is poorly understood.
In an $827,000 study, a team led by Victoria University’s Professor Marc Wilson will investigate why so many young people deliberately hurt themselves — and whether nonsuicidal self-injury is a gateway to suicidal thoughts and behaviour or vice versa.
The study will prove the first longitudinal study of its kind in the world, and answer some crucial questions facing the welfare of our at-risk youth.
2 A new “waka lab” to study the Pacific’s volcanoes
All active volcanoes give off gases and these emissions play an important role in the timing and nature of volcanic eruptions, while profoundly influencing the climate.
The volcanoes of Melanesia occupy an intensely active segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a volatile area where many earthquakes and eruptions occur. Satellite estimates indicate that one third of all the world’s volcanic gases originate from Melanesian volcanoes.
However, current sampling is biased towards easily accessible volcanoes in developed countries. This bias limits our understanding of the levels and environmental impacts of volcanic gas emissions.
In a $928,000 study, Dr Ian Schipper of Victoria University and Dr Yves Moussallam, of the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement in France, will sample gas emissions from the active terrestrial and underwater volcanoes of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Working with Ma¯ori and Melanesian voyaging societies, they’ll build a mobile volcano observatory in Melanesia using modern waka.
From this “waka lab”, the team will use aerial drones and ocean submersibles to collect samples from submarine volcanoes and provide insight into how volcanoes release gases.
3 A new hope against kauri dieback disease
Our cherished kauri is under threat from an incurable disease caused by a fungus-like pathogen — and efforts to fight the scourge have so far failed.
The spores that fuel kauri dieback disease, often introduced by people, swim through waterlogged soil towards the roots of host kauri and initiate infection.
The molecular mechanisms controlling this movement and infection involve a specific class of receptor proteins on the surface of spores.
This class of proteins is present within almost all non-bacterial species, from the kauri dieback pathogen to humans, and mediate virtually every important physiological process in cells.
It also happens to be that they’re the target of around 30 per cent of all current human medicines.
Professor Michelle Glass from the University of Otago and her team have been awarded a $939,000 Marsden Fund grant to tackle the problem using an innovative approach modelled on human drug discovery.
Glass will study the role of these specific receptor proteins in the migration of — and infection by — these spores.
Next, she’ll identify compounds that can interact with these proteins and inhibit their activity, enabling new atomic models to pick apart the interaction between these compounds and receptor proteins.
This project might enable the development of novel treatments that could help in the fight against this devastating dieback disease and protect our taonga species.
4 Are games teaching our kids to gamble?
Video games are big business — and here in New Zealand, their development makes up our fastest growing technology export sector.
Yet politicians, gamers, and parents around the world have sounded serious concerns about the recent emergence of gambling-related design features in video games, particularly those available to children.
Traditionally, video gamers were rewarded for their skills in mastering the game, but now many video games are starting to feature what are called “loot boxes” — some of which can be unlocked and sold with real money.
It’s thought this type of reward might lead to children quickly developing new behaviours which produce habits typically seen in conventional gambling.
To date, there has been almost no research exploring the potential psychological and financial risks that these gambling-related features pose.
In a new $300,000 project, Dr Aaron Drummond from Massey University, along with Dr James Sauer of the University of Tasmania and Professor Christopher Ferguson, of Stetson University in the US, will examine the psychological impact that in-game gambling-related features have on video game players.
5 Are we eating our own plastic?
Nearly 13 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the marine environment every year and most of it breaks up into very small particles or microplastics in the ocean. Alarmingly, these microplastic particles are finding their way into our food.
A recent study confirmed humans were eating microplastics in Europe, Japan and Russia, and in New Zealand we are likely now consuming these contaminants in our delicious Friday fish and chips as well.
The long-term effects on human health are largely unknown.
We also don’t understand how these microplastics enter our food chain in the first place.
Dr Julie Hope of the University of Auckland thinks the first and most critical step might be microalgae, a key food source for many fish and other marine animals. She’s been awarded a $300,000 grant to explore whether plastics enter our food chain via microalgae.
6 Rejuvenating Ma¯ ori navigation knowledge
Ma¯ori ancestors undertook deliberate voyages to and from Aotearoa using complex navigation skills and the cutting-edge technology of the time: the double-hulled waka.
For successive generations, the Pacific Ocean was a superhighway of voyaging passages and complex networks of culture and trade.
As Ma¯ori adapted to the unique environment of Aotearoa, however, knowledge of the technology and skills for long-distance voyaging declined.
Dr Haki Tuaupiki from the University of Waikato’s Te Pua Wa¯nanga ki te Ao (School of Ma¯ori and Indigenous Studies) has received a $300,000 grant to rediscover and regenerate Ma¯ori navigational knowledge.
The recent revitalisation of Polynesian voyaging has focused mainly on Micronesian and Hawaiian navigational practices.
By contrast, Tuaupiki will examine karakia (chants), mo¯teatea (songs), whakatauk¯ı (proverbs) and pu¯ra¯kau (ancient narratives) and conduct interviews with knowledge holders to recover traditional Ma¯ori navigational knowledge.
Tuaupiki will also work with contemporary Ma¯ori navigators to understand their practices, culminating in a waka voyage from Aotearoa to Hawaii in 2020.
Finally, he will combine traditional and contemporary knowledge to produce the first comprehensive Ma¯ori navigation system.
Available in te reo Ma¯ori and English, the resulting manual will incorporate environmental indicators used in unique ways by Ma¯ori, such as the sun and stars, winds and clouds, ocean movement, and bird and whale migrations.
The project brings astronomy, maritime studies and marine biology together with ma¯tauranga Ma¯ori to enrich waka voyaging in Aotearoa and make a major contribution to the recent revitalisation of trans-Pacific navigation.
The research will help a new generation of Ma¯ori voyagers reconnect with their tupuna and with Polynesian navigators across the Pacific.
7 Better cancer immunotherapy treatments
Cancer continues to be the number one killer of New Zealanders.
A promising new strategy for treating cancer, called immunotherapy, harnesses the patient’s own immune system to destroy cancer cells.
One such groundbreaking therapy genetically engineers the patient’s own immune cells, known as T cells, to express antibodies that target cancer cells.
This process generates a cancer therapy using chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T cells).
However, there are still two major problems with this exciting new therapy.
Firstly, these therapies have been more effective at treating blood cancers than solid tumours.
Secondly, this therapy can trigger an excessive immune response leading to serious, potentially lifethreatening, side effects for the patient.
Dr Sarah Saunderson of the University of Otago believes that the key to solving both of these problems is to design the immunotherapy to function specifically within the conditions found inside the solid tumour mass.
One key difference between normal tissue and cancer is that solid tumours become highly acidic due to a build-up of tumour cell waste products.
Saunderson has been awarded a $300,000 grant to exploit this pH difference to design an antibody “safety switch”.
A team led by Victoria University’s Professor Marc Wilson (pictured) will investigate why so many young people deliberately hurt themselves.