Lottery funding boost for research

Planned research on a largely incurable form of adult leukaemia has been boosted by $1.6 million in Lottery Grants Board funds to support University of Otago health science projects and related equipment.

A total of $3.3 million was distributed throughout the country in the latest lottery board grants round for health research.

Researchers at Otago University campuses in Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington gained 21 grants, totalling about $1.6 million, for new or continuing health research projects and shared research equipment, university officials said.

The grants supported research on a host of topics, ranging from heart disease and early detection of kidney failure, to the effectiveness of aqua aerobics in reducing falls in adults with osteoarthritis.

Otago University graduate Sarah Saunderson was yesterday surprised and pleased to gain $85,000 in lottery health funds to support her planned leukaemia-related research, at the Otago microbiology and immunology department.

Her PhD research, with some collaborative input from Dr Barry Hock, of Otago's Christchurch campus, will focus on aspects of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), the most common adult leukaemia in the Western world.

CLL remained largely incurable, because of a lack of effective treatments, with about 200 new cases arising in New Zealand each year, she said.

Tumour immunotherapy, which involved stimulating the immune system to attack tumours, was a possible form of treatment being explored for CLL, she said.

One key challenge was to identify tumour-specific antigens that might be used to stimulate the immune system into identifying cancer cells as foreign and therefore killing them.

She intended to explore the potential of "exosomes"- tiny structures released by CLL cells - to counter leukaemia.

"It's a challenge, but it's very rewarding," she said.

She already has an Otago bachelor of biomedical sciences honours degree.

Her supervisor, microbiology senior lecturer Dr Alexander McLellan, said her research would help shed more light on some of the poorly understood basic science involving exosomes and leukaemia.

Other Dunedin lottery grant recipients are:
Dr Yiwen Zheng, Prof Paul Smith, Assoc Prof Cynthia Darlington, Otago pharmacology and toxicology department, $76,271; Dr Colin Brown, physiology, $83,024; Prof Richard Cannon, School of Dentistry, $71,930; Dr Catherine Day, biochemistry, $74,017; Dr Kypros Kypri, Injury Prevention Research Unit, $21,464; Dr Leigh Hale, physiotherapy, $70,413; Dr Stephanie Hughes, biochemistry, $125,848; Dr Caroline Larsen, anatomy and structural biology, $43,385; Dr Jimmy Leong, microbiology and immunology; $84,411; Prof Stephen Robertson, women's and children's health,$124,840 ; Assoc Prof Jean-Claude Theis, medical and surgical sciences, $18,450.