Te Huinga Hinengaro
Tīhema 2024 | Kawerongo 2
December 2024 | Issue 2
Nau mai ki te putanga tuarua o Te Huinga Hinengaro!
Welcome to the second issue of Te Huinga Hinengaro!
We are excited to bring to you our Centre for Brain Research newsletter to keep you updated and connected on the latest in brain health, research and innovation.
He kōrero whakapuaki
Director's address
Tēnā tātou katoa,
Season's greetings to you all. What an exciting month November was for the CBR as we celebrated our 15th anniversary!
Since 2009, we have grown from 25 research groups to a dynamic, interdisciplinary team of 92 research groups across the University with more than 500 dedicated people. Thanks to their passion and commitment, we have surpassed our wildest expectations - and there is so much more to do!
As we look to the future, I’m excited by the emerging fields of research gaining momentum at the CBR, in autism, traumatic brain injury and gene editing, to name a few, and in our growing connections with the people who are affected by disease via our translational clinics.
I believe the next 15 years will hold even greater promise as we continue to evolve and meet the unique needs of Aotearoa New Zealand.
On November 20, I had the privilege of hosting an unforgettable 15th anniversary dinner to thank our donors, families, clinicians and supporters whose unwavering belief in us from the beginning has made all this possible.
I’m especially grateful to our speakers, Dr Helen Murray, Professor Lynette Tippett, Professor Chris Shaw, Dr Jessie Jacobsen, and Dr Makarena Dudley; the inspirational MND advocate and patient Dr Natalie Gauld; and to our brilliant MC, Sue Giddens.
With esteemed guests in attendance such as Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater and our Patron Dame Patsy Reddy, it was a chance to proclaim our achievements from the mountain tops!
But there are still many more mountains to climb.
Looking ahead to 2025, I am filled with renewed determination and excitement. The path ahead is long, but with the incredible community we’ve built, I have no doubt that we will continue to conquer new frontiers in brain research.
Nāku,
Richard
Director, Centre for Brain Research
Te Huinga Hinengaro
The University of Auckland
Ngā kōrero whakahira
Highlights
Centre for Brain Research 15th Anniversary Dinner
More than 150 people gathered to celebrate the CBR's 15th anniversary at the Northern Club. The special dinner was held to thank the CBR's incredible community of donors and supporters for their generosity and commitment to establishing a world class centre of brain research in New Zealand. A selection of images from the event are below.
Autism Reseach Clinic launched
The official launch of the CBR’s Autism Research Clinic on 27 November is a major step toward making genetic diagnosis for autism widely available in Aotearoa.
The clinic is the vision of senior lecturer Dr Jessie Jacobsen, who has dedicated years to unravelling the complex genetics of autism and helping to give families clear genetic answers.
She acknowledged collaborators Professors Russell Snell and Klaus Leonhardt for enabling the realisation of the clinic.
Dr Jessie Jacobsen at the launch of the Autism Research Clinic
In the first year, the researchers will work alongside hospital specialists to
enrol at least 50 children and their parents into the clinic.
“The plan is to build upon the success we've had in the research space, and to really reach further into the community to be able to provide world class research, informed diagnosis for individuals in Aotearoa New Zealand.”
Read more: Seeking answers for autism
Dr Waiora Port (Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa; Māori Advisory Board; & grandmother of an autistic individual), Nicola Sterne and her son Kyle (family members of an autistic individual), and Anne Campbell (Waiora's daughter).
Dr Jessie Jacobsen and Steven Joyce (Minds for Minds patron).
University of Otago awards Sir Richard honorary doctorate
Image credit - McRobie Studios
CBR Director Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull KNZM FRSNZ has added some more postnominals to his name after receiving an Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University of Otago - DSc (Hon).
The award was conferred on Wednesday, December 11, at the University of Otago's graduation ceremony, where Sir Richard also delivered the commencement address, stating, "This is an incredible recognition which I've never sought or even contemplated in my wildest dreams. It has filled me with enormous humble pride."
Sir Richard graduated from Otago Medical School in 1970, and says his years at Otago were transformational, personally and professionally.
Awards and Accolades
It has been an incredible past few months for members of Te Huinga Hinengaro, with a flurry of exceptional awards and prestigious grants going to our people. A huge congratulations to you all!
Two top medals for Professor Mike Dragunow
Professor Dragunow has received not one, but two highly prestigious medals for his contributions to treating brain disease. Notably he established the CBR’s Hugh Green Biobank, where he has developed world-leading methods to grow and study human brain cells in order to test treatments. He received:
- The New Zealand Association of Scientists Marsden Medal, recognising his lifetime contribution to research on brain disorders
- The Hercus Medal from the Royal Society Te Apārangi, for his world leading research on the causes and treatments of disorders of the brain.
Marsden medal awarded to brain researcher
Brain researcher wins prestigious medal
Doctoral scholars win half-a-million
All three doctoral scholarships awarded in the latest Neurological Foundation grant round went to CBR researcjers. Each scholarship is worth $166,174, so a total of nearly $500,000 is being injected into training the next generation of top brain scientists right here. The young researchers are all driven by a desire to make breakthroughs in finding treatments. Congratulations to:
Mikayla Chetty (Alzheimer’s disease)
Benjamin Watkin (Glioblastoma)
Jean Yu Lim
(Mate wareware dementia)
Three Hercus Fellowships unprecedented
Three of our scientists have won prestigious Sir Charles Hercus Health Research Fellowships, an amazing result. The fellowships from the Health Research Council are extremely sought-after. They provide up to $500,000 over four years, and are intended to build New Zealand's future capability to conduct world-class research. Congratulations to:
Dr Amy Smith, Pharmacology, for research on glial connections in mate wareware dementia - $599,771
Dr Hamid Abbasi, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, for research on technology to detect perinatal brain injury - $600,000
Dr Catherine Morgan, Psychology, for research on magnetic resonance imaging to predict dementia in a New Zealand sample - $598,353
Fellowship offers researcher freedom to study dementia
FMHS Professional Staff Excellence Awards 2024
Jane Govender - Ian Houston Award for Sustained Excellence.
Jane, from the Dementia Prevention Research Clinics (DPRC), was among four outstanding professional staff from across the Faculty to be recognised for excellence in 2024.
Jane has been a Clinical Research Nurse and Clinic Manager for the DPRC for
seven years.
DPRC Director Professor Lynette Tippett praised Jane’s ability to draw a complex team together to work on common goals that involve the provision of hope to people living with high risk of dementia.
“Her philosophy is grounded in partnership, respect, reciprocity, equity, inclusion and care. Within the research and clinic context, she always places the health and wellbeing of community research participants at the core of what we do and this is felt by these participants who recognise Jane as the beating heart of the clinics,” Professor Tippett says.
Faculty Research Development Fund
And a final congratulations to Dr Molly Swanson, whose supervisor Associate Professor Emma Scotter secured $32k from the Faculty of Science Research Development Fund to support Molly’s exciting research into inflammation in human motor neuron disease brains.
Her project is titled: From bench to brain: an in vitro model to study microglia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Dr Molly Swanson
Celebrating Excellence
Congratulations to CBR Principal Investigators whose promotions take effect early next year:
- Professor Klaus Lehnert, School of Biological Science
- Professor Nicholas Gant, Dept of Exercise Science
- Professor Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Dept of Pharmacy
- Associate Professor Emma Scotter, School of Biological Science
Ngā mihi nui to all for your contributions and for continuing to uphold the highest standards of academic and research excellence!
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
Our people
Get to know the people who make the work the we do at the Centre for Brain Research possible. In each edition of Te Huinga Hinengaro, we shine the spotlight on one of the incredible researchers that make up the CBR team
This month we talk to Dr Blake Highet, who became the Neurological Foundation Brain Bank Research Fellow earlier this year. He is investigating new techniques to better preserve post-mortem brain tissue.
Blake has come full circle, having completed his Honours and PhD under the supervision of Brain Bank Director Dr Maurice Curtis on Huntington’s disease.
He went on to the University of Utah on a Neurological Foundation Philip Wrightson Fellowship, where he studied molecular contributors to memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease, before returning to NZ.
What is your research focus?
Basically, I want to make sure we get the best use out of the tissue when it is bequested to us, both as soon as it comes in, and in the longer term.
The brain bank is setup for canonical IHC studies - putting a protein antibody on a section of tissue to see what's going on – but there are all these great molecular techniques coming out in the world that our brain bank is very well set up to do, it just needs someone to spearhead it, which is where I come in.
What difference do you hope your research can make?
It’s always been my goal to have my own independent research lab in NZ, but at the same time, I don’t want to lock myself away because it becomes very easy to forget the reason we are doing all of this, which is the patients and their families. Getting the most output from brain tissue is useful for our research, but is also incredibly meaningful to the families we work with. Much of the work we do at the Centre for Brain Research extends beyond the clinic into looking at what actually goes on with people, so I feel like I’m in the right place.
What has been your biggest ‘aha’ moment
Hearing Maurice lecture on neurogenesis in my second undergraduate year was a turning point. The idea that you could grow new brain cells was so exciting, and I thought ‘why would I want to become a medical doctor when I could study neuroscience!’ My goal has always just been to do cool research, and Maurice has helped broaden my ambition to playing a part in solving genetic disease.
Ā mātou mahi
Our work
Groundbreaking 3D model of the nasal cavity helps Parkinson's research
Pictured: Professor Maurice Curtis with a model of the olfactory system.
An international team led by Professor Maurice Curtis has generated a groundbreaking 3D computer reconstruction of the inside of a nasal cavity and part of the cranial cavity, to help neuroscientists “fly” through the nose.
Professor Curtis says the model was the result of several years and thousands of hours of work from a team of dedicated collaborators – involving Dr Victoria Low from the Department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging; Dr Gonzalo Maso Talou and coworkers at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute; and Dr Peter Mombaerts, Director of the Max Planck Research Unit for Neurogenetics in Frankfurt, Germany.
“This work is clinically relevant as it helps us understand the neuronal wiring and anatomical structures in the human olfactory system,” Professor Curtis says.
The results are published in Communications Biology.
Research spotlight
Each issue, we highlight a paper by one of our esteemed researchers, demonstrating the breadth of our contributions to the understanding of the human brain.
Dr Karen Waldie, a Professor in Developmental Neuropsychology from the Faculty of Science, has published the results of a study evaluating how the brain processes language during different tasks in bilingual German-English speakers, using EEG to measure brain activity.
The researchers focused on four tasks: listening in the second language, speaking in the first language, repeating spoken words in the second language, and translating sentences from the second language to the first.
The research found distinct patterns of brain waves (oscillations) depending on the type of task, offering new insights into how the brain switches between languages.
The study, titled Oscillatory features of German–English sentence processing: Evidence from an EEG study, was published in the International Journal of Bilingualism.
Huge turnout for DPRC event
More than 120 participants and whānau attended the Dementia Prevention Research Clinic’s annual participant information evening in November, demonstrating the incredible engagement the clinic has with its community.
The event was a chance to update research participants on the DPRCs’ national progress, future challenges and exciting studies underway.
Snapshots of active research and special projects were presented by a selection of dementia researchers involved in the clinics, ending with latest updates on treatments, with questions from the audience.
The attending participants were delighted to hear the news of clinic manager Jane Govender's Ian Houston Sustained Excellence award, and there was a great buzz amongst all present at the concluding refreshments.
Below: Images from the Dementia Prevention Research Clinics' participant information evening.
Ngā kawepūrongo
In the news
University of Auckland opens autism research clinic
Radio NZ
New research clinic offering genetic diagnoses for autism
Radio NZ
Scientists use AI to create 3D computer model of nasal cavity
Radio NZ
Drug company deal delivers hope for dementia
University of Auckland
Sir Richard Faull’s groundbreaking brain research earns honorary doctor of science
NZ Herald
Sir Richard Faull honored for neuroscience
Waatea News
Brain researcher receiving honorary DSc
Otago Daily Times
Family healing through celebration choir after father’s serious brain injury
Radio NZ
Whakapā mai
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