$1.4M to build international research partnerships

13 September 2007

HRC invests over $1.4M to help build international health research partnerships

More than $1.4M has been invested by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) into five international health research collaborations.

These projects bring together New Zealand health researchers and international partners to investigate important health issues including bone health, age related cataract, neurodegenerative disease, cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The collaborations are funded through Objective 1 of the International Investment Opportunities Fund (IIOF), which focuses on enabling outstanding New Zealand researchers to build research collaborations with overseas research teams. The fund supports applicants to engage in research activities that will produce gains for New Zealand, offer significant leverage to build New Zealand’s health research capacity, and are likely to attract international co-funding to support longer term research projects.

Each of the research proposals selected has the potential to benefit the health of New Zealanders.

Details of funding approved by the HRC Board and offered to research teams in the 2007/08 round of IIOF Objective 1 are as follows:

How does COPD develop in non-smokers?
24 months, $400,000
Associate Professor Peter Black, Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacology, University of Auckland.

Lead International Partner: Prof Chun-Xue Bai, Pulmonary Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Project Summary:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with an inexorable decline in lung function. The most important cause of COPD is smoking but it only accounts for 70 per cent of the risk and 10 per cent of people with COPD have never smoked. This study will compare individuals with COPD who have been heavy smokers with an equal number who have not smoked and with a control group with normal lung function. The study will be performed in New Zealand and China. Comparing the two countries will help to better understand both the environmental factors leading to COPD in non-smokers and the cellular and molecular basis of COPD in this group of individuals.

Bone Cell Activity Assessed in Three-dimensional Scaffold Cultures
24 months, $300,000
Professor Jillian Cornish, Dr Dorit Naot, Professor Ian Reid, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Lead International Partners: Professor Graham Russell, Dr Philippa Hulley, Dr Zhidao Xia, The Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford.

Project Summary:

This proposal will build a collaboration of highly experienced researchers from the two Universities who have complementary skills in bone biology. Auckland researchers will use unique 3D scaffold cultures (developed by the Oxford team) to study the nature of bone matrix produced from cells that over-express the genes implicated in Paget’s disease. Scaffold cultures will also be used to assess the effects of novel bone-growth factors identified as potential therapies for osteoporosis. The cellular networks formed will be analysed using sophisticated imaging and molecular biology techniques.

Targeted in situ proteomics: a new method to study lens cataract
24 months, $310,000
Associate Professor Paul Donaldson, Dr Julie Lim, Department of Physiology, University of Auckland.

Lead International Partner: Professor Kevin Schey, Pharmacology, Medical University of South Carolina, USA.

Other International Partner: Professor Roger Truscott, Save Sight Institute, University of Sydney, Australia.

Project Summary:

Age related nuclear (ARN) cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the world today. In this project, three internationally pre-eminent lens laboratories will combine their expertise on lens structure and function, proteomics and biochemistry in a collaboration that will develop novel approaches to investigate the underlying mechanisms that initiate ARN cataract. This information will form the basis of future work to develop novel anti-cataract therapies to reduce the incidence of ARN cataract.

Phase II Trial of Selenomethionine with Chemoradiation in Head and Neck Cancer
24 months, $80,431
Dr Michael Jameson, Dr Michael Tills, Oncology Department, Waikato Hospital, (07) 839 8604.

Lead International Partners: Assistant Professor Wainwright Jaggernauth, Radiation Medicine Department, Assistant Professor Mary Reid, Department of Epidemiology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, USA.

Project Summary:

Researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute have shown in the laboratory that large doses of selenium (a trace mineral) can improve the side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy while helping them to work more effectively. Cancers of the head and neck require aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which causes severe side effects. In this project, 80 patients in NZ and the US with head and neck cancers will be given either selenium or placebo capsules throughout their cancer treatment, to determine the effect of selenium on the side effect profile. If the results of this trial are encouraging, this could lead to larger international trials of selenium as an adjunct to cancer therapy.

Synaptic targets for neurodegenerative disease and brain repair
24 months, $399,000
Dr Johanna Montgomery, Department of Physiology, Dr Bronwen Connor, Department of Pharmacology, University of Auckland.

Lead International Partner: Associate Professor William Green, Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Chicago, USA.

Project Summary:
Neurodegenerative disease induces massive brain cell loss which our brains cannot repair. The ability for the adult brain to produce newborn neurons represents a powerful potential treatment for these diseases but only if we acquire a complete understanding of how newborn neurons integrate into the brain. Using live cell imaging and electrophysiology, the team will visualise the functional integration of newborn neurons and determine how a specific family of synaptic proteins control this process. The data will provide key information on the cell biology and synapse function of newborn neurons and identify potential therapeutic targets to increase the regenerative capacity of the brain.

ENDS

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