Four Hercus Fellowships for Auckland
Tue Dec 08 2015 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Four Hercus Fellowships for Auckland
08 December 2015
Dr Joanne Davidson (Physiology).
Medical researchers at the University of Auckland were awarded four of the five substantial Sir Charles Hercus fellowships this week.
This is the first year in which five Hercus Fellowships have been awarded by the Health Research Council (HRC) to New Zealand researchers.
Post-doctoral brain research is the focus of Dr Joanne Davidson from the University’s Department of Physiology who was awarded $500,000 to help extend the window of opportunity for saving babies’ brains following oxygen deprivation at birth.
Her research supervisor is world renowned expert in perinatal brain injury, Professor Alistair Gunn, whose work in the development of brain cooling for babies with loss of oxygen supply to the brain has revolutionised the care of these infants.
Loss of oxygen supply to the brain occurs in about two out of every 1000 live births and can result in brain damage and lifelong disability, including cerebral palsy.
Treatment options for these babies are extremely limited and only partially effective. Dr Davidson has previously shown that ‘connexin hemi-channels’ are involved in the spread of injury within the first three hours after oxygen deprivation.
“The aim of this research is to investigate the channels and receptors that may contribute to the spread of injury after the connexin hemichannels open. Blocking channels and receptors downstream of connexin hemichannels may successfully prevent the spread of injury and allow for treatment to be started later,” says Dr Davidson.
The four 2015 HRC Sir Charles Hercus health research fellowships to University of Auckland are;
Dr Joanne Davidson, ‘Extending the window of opportunity for saving babies brains’, four years, $500,000, (Physiology).
Dr Joanna James, ‘Can placental stem cells be used to improve fetal outcomes?’, four years, $500,000, (Obstetrics and Gynaecology).
Dr Raewyn Poulsen, ‘Osteoarthritis: a case of cellular mismanagement?’, four years, $500,000. Dr Poulsen will take up her Hercus Fellowship in the Bone and Joint Lab of the Department of Medicine, supervised by Professor Nicola Dalbeth.
Dr Clare Reynolds, ‘IL-1 signalling and developmental programming of offspring metabolic health’, $408,992, (Liggins).
The fifth Sir Charles Hercus Fellowship awarded by the Health Research Council went to; Dr Tania Slatter, University of Otago, Dunedin. ‘Predicting brain tumour prognosis from cell immortality pathways’, four years, $500,000.
The Hercus Fellowships were announced as part of a record total of $8.2 million in awards by the HRC to support the careers of the next generation of health research leaders.
Seventy-three career development awards were granted in the HRC’s 2015 funding round. Included in these awards were 10 clinical research training fellowships, up from six last year, and five prestigious Sir Charles Hercus health research fellowships valued at up to $500,000 each.
HRC Chief Executive Professor Kathryn McPherson says the HRC Board was extremely impressed with the quality of applications this year.
“We’re delighted to be able to fund a significantly greater number of career development awards than in previous years, including $1.8 million for our Māori health research workforce and $1.5 million for up-in-coming Pacific health researchers. Our previous highest total value for these awards over the past 10 years was $7.4 million in 2011, which also happens to be the only other year that we’ve supported five Hercus fellows,” says Professor McPherson.
“Health research is one of the strongest fields of knowledge generation and translation that we have here in New Zealand, and the HRC is proud to support that excellence through these highly competitive awards.”
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