Lecturer lands $840,000 research catch

University of Otago zoology lecturer Dr Sheri Johnson, shown at the Otago Zebrafish Facility,...
University of Otago zoology lecturer Dr Sheri Johnson, shown at the Otago Zebrafish Facility, will undertake research about valuable environmental information passed on by older male fish to their offspring. Photo by Gregor Richardson.

An $840,000 Marsden Fund grant will help University of Otago zoology lecturer Dr Sheri Johnson undertake research on fish, which could also shed new light on aspects of obesity.

Canadian-born Dr Johnson leads one of 20 University of Otago research projects which together have just received about $11.74million from the Marsden Fund, which supports curiosity-driven research.

A total of $53.4million was provided in the latest national funding round.

Dr Johnson said gaining the Marsden grant was a ''great'' outcome, which would give her research group ''a fantastic start'' in the planned work.

And she could be forgiven for thinking that good fortune comes in threes this year.

She was appointed a lecturer on June 1, and later that month was named as one of five up-and-coming Otago academics to gain Early Career Awards for Distinction in Research.

Dr Johnson is leading a large team of multinational researchers to investigate the idea that more valuable environmental information may be passed on to their offspring by older male fish, compared with younger males.

And research already undertaken by Dr Johnson has showed that older male fish exposed to limited oxygen levels in water apparently pass on to their young offspring greater ability to survive low oxygen levels in water.

Parents influenced their offspring in many ways, but recent studies highlighted the role of non-genetic or epigenetic pathways, in which the environment altered the influence of genes by modifying how they were expressed, she said.

Transmitting life-history challenges experienced by parents, particularly fathers, in this way would provide a fitness advantage to offspring.

Otago researchers will lead 13 projects and seven gained ''Fast-Start'' grants, the latter designed to support outstanding early-career researchers.

Otago researchers' projects range from unravelling antiseptic resistance mechanisms in a bacterium commonly found in hospitals to exploring ways to overcome problems building quantum computers and studying the emergence in South Asia of Buddhist monastic groups preaching messages of intolerance of religious minorities.

Other Otago grant funding: Dr Louise Bicknell, pathology, $840,000; Prof Blair Blakie, physics, $790,000; Associate Prof Hallie Buckley, anatomy, co-principal investigator Prof Charles Higham, anthropology and archaeology, $767,000; Dr Christine Jasoni, $740,000, Prof Lisa Matisoo-Smith, $767,000, both anatomy; Dr Martin Fronius, $755,000, Dr Peter Jones, $805,000, both physiology; Prof Harlene Hayne, $742,000, Prof Ted Ruffman, $767,000, both psychology; Dr Jevon Longdell, physics, $790,000; Prof Iain Raeburn and co-principal investigators Prof Astrid an Huef and Dr Lisa Clark, $550,000, all mathematics and statistics; Dr Deborah Williamson, Wellington campus, $490,000. Fast-Starts, all $300,000: Dr Tilman Davies, mathematics and statistics; Dr Allan Gamble, pharmacy; Dr Anne Ford, anthropology and archaeology; Dr Rob Middag, chemistry, Dr Raymond Staals, microbiology and immunology, Dr Ben Schonthal, theology and religion, Dr Angela Ballantyne, Wellington campus.john.gibb@odt.co.nz

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