Planned University of Otago research into obesity-related liver damage has been boosted by funding in the annual Laurenson Awards.
University senior research fellow Dr Kirsten Coppell, of the university's Edgar National Centre for Diabetes and Obesity Research, has gained a $27,738 grant in the latest Otago Medical Research Foundation Laurenson Awards.
Award organisers said the prevalence of obesity in New Zealand dramatically increased between 1997 and 2008-09.
Dr Coppell will analyse obesity-related liver damage and associated disorders in the adult New Zealand population, using results from the 2008-09 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey.
This project aims to describe the epidemiology of two increasingly important conditions associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hyperuricaemia.
The latter condition involves an abnormally high level of uric acid in the blood. She will also explore using dietary intervention to counter the liver problems.
There was growing concern in the United States about non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, given a huge rise of obesity in that country and New Zealand also had a high obesity rate, at 28%, she said in an interview.
A total of $89,999 was awarded for working expenses and supporting technical staff in the latest Laurenson Awards, organisers said.
Dr Andrew Bahn, of the Otago University physiology department, and Associate Prof Lisa Stamp, of the university's Christchurch campus, had also gained more than $27,000 in Laurenson funding, for research to explore the impact of a drug used to regulate high blood pressure in patients with gout.
The research aimed to improve treatment for such patients.
Two other medical research projects investigating aspects of the effects of diet and/or drugs on human health had also gained funding through the awards.
One project, headed by Dr Regis Lamberts and Dr Pete Jones, of the Otago physiology department, will investigate how drugs stimulating blood pressure affect the diabetic heart ($16,505).
A second project, headed by Dr Khaled Greish and Associate Prof Rhonda Rosengren, of pharmacology and toxicology, had gained $18,018 and would examine the possibility of using nanotechnology to develop an effective therapy against breast cancer.
In New Zealand, breast cancer affects about 2500 new patients every year and kills more than 600.
