Prestigious fellowship for scientist

A University of Otago scientist, Associate Prof Tony Poole, has been awarded a prestigious James Cook Research Fellowship to pursue research which could ultimately lead to better diagnosis and "solutions" for kidney disease.

Science Minister Wayne Mapp this week announced the Government-funded fellowships, each amounting to $126,000 a year, for two years, had been awarded to four researchers making "vital contributions in their fields".

Other recipients were: Massey University Prof Paul Rainey, Auckland University Prof Poul Nielsen and Victoria University of Wellington Prof Susan Schenk.

Prof Poole (57), who was born in Invercargill and has a BSc (Hons) and a PhD in zoology from Otago University, will study a flock of sheep with mutated primary cilia, a hair-like structure that acts for cells as a probe of their external environment.

His research, undertaken in New Zealand over the past 32 years, had gained international recognition and it was a "great delight" to also be recognised by his New Zealand peers, he said.

The fellowship would help maintain his long-term study of primary cilia function, and its "fundamental impact on the health and welfare of all New Zealanders."

Such cilia - found on the outside of nearly all animal cells - were until recently largely viewed as non-functional evolutionary relics, but were actually key players in many cellular processes.

Many previously unexplained diseases occurred when primary cilia malfunctioned and these were now collectively termed ciliopathies.

Prof Poole and colleagues have discovered a flock of sheep with mutated primary cilia producing a ciliopathy very similar to the rare and lethal human genetic disorder called Meckel-Gruber syndrome.

He will use cells from this animal model to better understand how primary cilia interact with their environment, communicate to the cell and co-ordinate the cellular feedback response.

- john.gibb@odt.co.nz