Research for Life funding boost for Victoria University of Wellington researchers
Victoria University of Wellington researchers have received over $20,000 in funding from Research for Life for medical research and presentations at international conferences.
Professor John Miller, Emeritus Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, received $10,000 to screen new compounds to help develop new cancer treatments. Professor Miller’s work will investigate natural products to find new ways to inhibit cancer cell growth.
Dr Andrew Munkacsi from the School of Biological Sciences received $7,272 to investigate new treatment options for Niemann-Pick type C disease, a fatal paediatric neurodegenerative disease that typically results in loss of life before adolescence. This disease is affected by defective sphingolipid molecules, which also cause many other diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Dr Munkacsi’s research aims to identify the genes that regulate sphingolipids and thus identify genes that can be targeted to help prevent the onset and progression of Niemann-Pick type C and other diseases caused by defective sphingolipids. Dr Munkacsi’s work will also provide insight into how sphingolipids function in healthy people.
PhD student Deanna Ayupova from the MacDiarmid Institute received a travel grant of $3,000 to present her research at the Computational Biology of Cancer conference in Paris and the Applied Nanotechnology and Nanoscience International Conference in Berlin. Her research aims to develop a non-invasive device that can help detect lung cancer by using breath exosomes to identify signs of cancer in patients.
Masters student Sonja Hummel also received a travel grant of $1,000 to present her findings at the AussieMit conference in Melbourne this year. Sonja’s research investigates a mechanism cancerous cells use to resist the effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, called mitochondrial transfer. By using yeast to model the conditions that cancer cells are in, Sonja aims to identify the underlying genetical signals which could lead to the potential development of cancer treatments in the future.
Dr Rebecca Grainger, Chair of RFL’s Research Advisory Committee, said: “Research for Life congratulates the successful applicants of this round of funding. The research they are undertaking is innovative, well-conceived and vital to achieving continuing improvements in health outcomes in the community.”
Research for Life is the public face of the Wellington Medical Research Foundation. It aims to fund quality research undertaken by researchers in the early stages of their careers whose work will advance the quality of healthcare in the Wellington region and beyond.