Maori scholar at cutting edge of gene research

Chris Rodley had to wrench himself away from his Massey University Auckland science laboratory, where he is entranced by cancerous cells, to attend a graduation ceremony for Maori students last Friday (April 18).

The 24-year-old Dairy Flat student graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biosciences with First Class Honours. He is now in his first year of doctoral research, investigating DNA interactions, which he hopes could lead to new disease therapies.

Mr Rodley (Ngati Koata) left Long Bay College aged 16 with no qualifications, having been suspended three times.

“I got in with the wrong crowd. I was bored,” he says.

But his lifelong fascination with science, especially genetics, always remained with him. After a spell of apple picking in the South Island and then a three-year stint as a bank teller in Auckland, restlessness and boredom compelled Chris to pursue his dream of becoming a medical researcher. Encouragement from one of his former schoolteachers also helped to spur him on, he says.

He enrolled aged 20 as an adult student, and found his first year “quite a struggle”.

“I had to do a lot of independent study to fill in the gaps in my knowledge base.

“I made a lot of sacrifices to do well. I didn’t have much of a social life – I had to study ten to twelve hours a day.”

The hard work and dedication paid off. Chris was named top Maori student for 2007, and was awarded a Purehuroa Maori Postgraduate Award in 2007 for excellence and achievement. He also won a Health Research Council of New Zealand Mäori PhD scholarship worth $105,000 for three years.

These days Chris’s life revolves around cutting edge genetic research working with Dr Justin O’Sullivan as a member of an Institute of Molecular Biosciences research group studying DNA to DNA interactions. He is investigating the mechanisms of gene interaction and expression, with a view to implications for disease development and treatment.

He is investigating how the three-dimensional organisation of DNA in the cell nucleus affects the switching on or off of genes. Using cancerous cells and bakers’ yeast, the research into how interactions between DNA sequences separated by large distances can turn genes on or off is a relatively new area, says Chris.

“What I love about my work is that every day I come into the lab and wonder if today will be the day I discover something new,” says Chris, who expects to publish the results of the first phase of his research in the international science journal Nature later this year.