Health research to benefit New Zealanders receives major support
A wide range of world-class University of Otago research aimed at improving New Zealanders' health and wellbeing has received major support in the Health Research Council's (HRC) latest annual funding round.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise) Professor Harlene Hayne warmly welcomed the announcement of the new funding.
"It is fantastic that more than two dozen Otago research projects with great potential to produce significant health benefits for individuals, families and communities have been supported," Professor Hayne says.
The $30.3m gained goes towards 25 health research programmes and projects at the University, ranging from investigations of basic biomedical mechanisms involved in cancer and other diseases to community-level interventions aimed at making homes healthier and tackling childhood obesity.
Professor Hayne says that one major new programme with the potential to reap huge rewards in improving health and wellbeing involves the internationally-acclaimed Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, which has tracked the progress of around 1000 people born in 1972-73.
"In the decades it has been running, the Study has yielded vast amounts of invaluable information about almost every conceivable aspect of people's health and development as they grow into adulthood. With this new funding, the study is poised to generate further knowledge to guide policy and practice in promoting good health and positive aging for New Zealanders."
Other examples of Otago's newly-funded initiatives include studies into whether Vitamin D supplementation reduces respiratory infections; how to reduce barriers to care for pregnant mothers and their whanau; new approaches to reducing tobacco use; and biological mechanisms involved in heart health.
The contracts comprise four multi-million dollar, multi-year programmes, 17 projects, three emerging researcher first grants and a feasibility study. The recipients are from across University's three main campuses in Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington.
Three new programmes focus on improving home environments to enhance health; looking at disease risk in participants in Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study as they move into middle age; and gaining new insights into the effects oxidative stress has on the body. A fourth programme devoted to unraveling how the brain controls fertility has been extended.
The new programmes are led by Professors Philippa Howden-Chapman, Richie Poulton and Christine Winterbourn from the University's Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch campuses, respectively:
- Around $3m in funding for Wellington's He Kainga Oranga/Community Housing and Health Intervention Research Programme will support three projects. Researchers will study the health effects of mouldy housing, along with interventions aimed at reducing injuries in the home and improving the health of elderly COPD sufferers through warmer homes.
- The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study gains $4.6m for a programme investigating aging and risk for chronic diseases in study members. The three projects focus on psychiatric and social predictors of cardiovascular health; oral health at 38; and sexual health and reproductive health at the same age.
- The Free Radical Research Group at the University of Otago, Christchurch, will undertake a $2.2m programme investigating oxidative stress in health and disease. The researchers will look at the production and consequences of reactive oxidants in the body in relation to inflammation, infection, cardiovascular disease and cell signalling.
- An existing HRC programme involving Professor Allan Herbison and colleagues at the Centre for Neuroendocrinology centred on how the brain regulates fertility is being extended for a further three years through a $3.25m grant.
The overall goal of their work is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms controlling fertility in health and disease to enable new clinical treatments for infertility. Centre researchers will also study the control of fertility by the hormone prolactin in a separate project.
Professor Hayne warmly congratulated all the Otago recipients, who range from senior professors to early-career researchers, on their success in the highly competitive round.
"I am delighted that so many of our health researchers have gained such significant funding to support their important work."