Marsden funds benefit primary sector, human health

Marsden grants to benefit primary sector and human health

10 September, 2007

Two AgResearch researchers who were last week awarded prestigious Marsden Fund grants will use animal models for research that could lead to important insights into human and animal growth and development and potential new treatments for cancer and heart disease.

AgResearch’s Ruakura based Scientist Dr Peter Pfeffer, who is part of the Reproductive Technologies Section, has been awarded nearly $750,000 over three years to study ‘the enigmatic function of the disappearing Rauber’s Layer.’

Dr Pfeffer’s project will focus on a study of gastrulation, which is the embryonic process whereby the three body layers are laid down in mammals and the head-tail orientation of the body plan is specified.

“Over the last decade research from numerous labs, including our own, has shown that in mice gastrulation is initialised by signals coming from regions that will later form the placenta.

“Intriguingly, the equivalent region (termed the Rauber’s layer) in many other mammals (for example cows, carnivores, rabbits and humans) has disappeared well before gastrulation can be triggered.”

Dr Pfeffer and colleagues will investigate where the signals that induce gastrulation emanate from in these mammals.

“We plan to use cows as a model system to answer this fundamental question, the answer to which will lead to evolutionary insight into early mammalian development. Such knowledge is critical to gaining an eventual understanding of human as well as livestock reproductive failure and disease,” says Dr Pfeffer.

Palmerston North based Senior Scientist Dr Ron Ronimus of the Food Metabolism & Microbiology Section has been awarded $550,000 over three years for a study entitled ‘Gasping for oxygen? The role of a novel ADP-dependent glucokinase in adaptation to hypoxia.’

Dr Ronimus will test the hypothesis that a newly discovered mammalian glucose-phosphorylating enzyme, ADP-dependent glucokinase (ADP-GK), is important in cellular adaptation to low oxygen conditions (hypoxia).

Many serious human diseases such as cancer, heart disease, chronic lung and intestinal disease cause hypoxia in cells.

Survival of cells during hypoxia has vital clinical implications for many of these diseases as well as physiological processes such as embryonic development and stem cell maintenance.

During severe hypoxia cells become critically reliant on glycolysis, an oxygen-independent process for the metabolism of glucose to produce energy.

“ADP-GK has the potential to enhance glycolysis and is the first new enzyme involved in glucose utilisation to be discovered in mammals in over 40 years,” he says.

The project will characterise the human ADP-GK, and determine its structure, its distribution in normal and cancerous tissues, and its role in cell survival and energy metabolism under conditions of limited oxygen and glucose.

“Potential downstream medical benefits include enhanced imaging of hypoxia-related disease and new therapies for improving cellular recovery (heart attacks, stroke) or targeted cell killing (cancer).”

Dr Ronimus is collaborating on the project with Professor William Wilson and Dr Adam Patterson at the Experimental Oncology Group, University of Auckland and Drs Kathryn Stowell and Andrew Sutherland-Smith at Massey University.

AgResearch General Manager Science Strategy Services Dr Travis Glare says the funding wins show that agricultural science is not limited to benefiting the primary sector.

“Much of our research into animals such as livestock and possums helps to inform research into human reproduction, growth and development as well as therapies for diseases.”

ENDS

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