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Liggins Link—October 2025
Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to the October edition of the Liggins Link.
This month, we celebrate and congratulate Professor Caroline Crowther on her distinguished career in maternal and perinatal medicine. Caroline has been awarded the prestigious Gluckman Medal, the University’s highest honour for health research excellence. This well-deserved award is a recognition of the profound impact her work has had on transforming maternal and perinatal health worldwide.
Earlier this month, we held a scientific symposium to celebrate Professor Crowther’s distinguished career. We’re pleased to share photos from this event and the University Mānawa Mai Open Day in August.
We also feature stories on the Institute's research into gut bugs and adolescent obesity, the use of AI to diagnose lung disease, and Long Covid and immune dysfunction. Find out more in the stories below.
Ngā mihi nui
Justin
Professor Justin O'Sullivan
Director, Liggins Institute,
Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland
PITOPITO KŌRERO | NEWS
Caroline Crowther wins Gluckman medal for transforming healthcare
Following a distinguished career in medicine and research across three continents, Professor Caroline Crowther has been awarded the prestigious Gluckman Medal, the University of Auckland’s highest honour for health research excellence.
The good sh*t: Stunning results from Kiwi obesity trial using “crapsules” for weight loss
Image credit: The Listener/Getty Images
Donna Chisholm's fabulous story about our obesity trial is out now in the Listener (paywalled). Eight years ago, 87 obese adolescents took part in a groundbreaking study to see whether fecal transfer (taking ‘good’ gut bacteria from healthy donors and giving them in capsule form to people with a less healthy microbiome) would make a difference to their health and weight.
Four years later, a follow-up study, published last week in the world-leading scientific journal Nature Communications, suggests some significant health benefits from that single gut bugs transfer.
In particular, the original overweight teens who received the transfer had reduced risk for a bunch of metabolic changes which can lead to heart disease, stroke and diabetes, compared with the participants who received the placebo.
“The microbiome is literally the new frontier of health research,” says Liggins Institute paediatric endocrinologist Professor Wayne Cutfield, a co-leader of the study with his colleague, Liggins director Professor Justin O'Sullivan. “Changes in it occur in so many diseases, and if it could be altered by a treatment, that could be totally transforming.”
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Additional news and social media stories are available at the links below. Online news
Radio
Social media
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Using AI to reshape lung disease diagnosis
Dr Roan Zaied is developing a model to predict COPD before lung damage occurs.
What if we could predict chronic lung disease years before symptoms appear? Liggins Institute researcher Dr Roan Zaied is using machine learning to do just that.
Roan was also interviewed on 95bFM Ready Steady Learn about her work on improving early detection of COPD. Listen to the interview at the link below:
Dr Anna Brooks and Rohan Botica.
Dr Anna Brooks and lived-experience researcher Rohan Botica are working to understand complex chronic conditions involving immune dysfunction, including Long Covid, with the aim of improving diagnosis and clinical care.
A busy Mānawa Mai Open Day for the University and Institute
The Mānawa Mai Open Day on Saturday, 30 August, was extremely busy and a big success. The Liggins Institute tours of the Clinical Research Unit and research laboratory were fully booked, and the vibration plate proved very popular with prospective students and their parents. It was exciting to see their passion for the possibilities of future research with us, even if it’s a few years down the line.
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Ensuring women’s and babies’ future best health
Speakers and attendees of the scientific symposium “Ensuring women’s and babies’ future best health” in honour of Professor Caroline Crowther’s distinguished career.
Earlier this month, the Liggins Institute was proud to host the scientific symposium “Ensuring women’s and babies’ future best health” in honour of Professor Caroline Crowther’s distinguished career.
We were joined by an inspiring lineup of speakers, colleagues, collaborators, and former students, who shared reflections on Caroline’s remarkable contributions to evidence-based care for mothers and babies. Her leadership in research synthesis, clinical trials, and mentoring the next generation of clinician-researchers has left a lasting legacy.
Thank you to all who attended and contributed to this special event. Your presence helped make the day a true celebration of research excellence, collaboration, and the future of maternal fetal medicine.
We also congratulate Caroline on being awarded a Professor Emerita position – a reflection of her outstanding service to Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland and her international standing.
Professor Justin O’Sullivan, Professor Caroline Crowther, Distinguished Professor Dame Jane Harding and Associate Professor Gergely Toldi with Liggins Institute Clinical Research Interns.
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Precision health and AI: the future for healthcare in New Zealand
If you missed our August public lecture, ‘Precision health and AI: the future for healthcare in New Zealand’, the video is now online. Discover how AI and genomics are transforming healthcare, improving diagnosis, and enabling personalised treatments that save lives.
Swab, Sequence, Surprise! How science is personalising your health, Raising the Bar podcast episode
Join Professor Justin O’Sullivan as he rips the lid off conventional healthcare and explores how cutting-edge science is personalising treatment like never before.
Hear how your DNA, gut bugs, metabolic fingerprints and even your digital breadcrumbs can be harnessed right now to craft the perfect drug and diet plan just for you. Get ready to challenge everything you thought you knew about health.
WHAKAMIHI | CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to Mohammad Shahbaz, who has successfully defended his PhD oral examination endorsed by the Board of Graduate Studies.
Mohammad worked as an epidemiologist for several years in Iran before coming to NZ to pursue his PhD under the supervision of Jane Harding (Liggins) and Greg Gamble (FMHS). His thesis assessed the use of data linkage for outcome assessment in long-term follow-ups of NZ antenatal corticosteroid trials, comparing methods for outcome ascertainment and handling of missing laboratory data.
Since submitting his PhD thesis, Mohammad has been providing invaluable statistical support to the NiPPeR trial, thanks to his expertise in the analysis of complex hierarchical data and machine-learning techniques.
Congratulations to Dr Caroline Walker on being awarded a $179,111 project grant from the Neurological Foundation for the STAMP Study: School-age Tracking and Assessment with MRI. This research investigates how early brain scans in babies born moderately-to-late preterm (MLP) relate to their brain development and learning abilities at school age. Learn more
Congratulations to Clinical Research Intern Chloe Bell, who received a Travel Award for her presentation 'Individualised versus standardised expressed breastmilk fortification on preterm outcomes - Systematic review and meta-analysis' at the Perinatal Society of New Zealand Annual Scientific Meeting in September.
Congratulations to PhD student Ashleigh Brown, who received the Runner Up New Investigator Award for her presentation 'Screening blind spot: missing infants in the detection of congenital hypothyroidism' at the Perinatal Society of New Zealand Annual Scientific Meeting in September.
Congratulations to PhD student Lilia Delgado Paramo, who won third place for best poster presentation at the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) World Congress 2025 in Buenos Aires.
Congratulations to PhD student Cristal Salatas, who was awarded an honourable mention for her oral presentation at the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) World Congress 2025 in Buenos Aires.
Congratulations to PhD student Caitlin Woods, who won the AMRF Outstanding Emerging Researcher and Best Doctoral Oral Presentation at HealtheX 2025 for her presentation 'Evaluation of a midwifery student employment model in Aotearoa: experiences of students and registered midwives. She was also awarded a $4,000 AMRF Travel Grant.
Congratulations to Clinical Research Intern Ariba Iqbal, who was awarded the FMHS PGSA Excellent Abstract Award at HealtheX 2025 for her research 'Infant formula for the prevention and treatment of neonatal hypoglycaemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
