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ANNUAL REPORT 2020 | 13 “Science is magic that works.” – Kurt Vonnegut Sometimes I look back and wonder how I got to where I am today. I look at my journey as one that was unplanned and serendipitous in many ways. I grew up in a household where science was part of my life. My father has a degree in engineering and physics and many of my childhood memories are based around him helping me with school science projects and making crystal radio sets. However, physics was not my forte, and I leaned towards Biology and English at high school. My Dad’s advice for me was “keep your options open”. So, I left high school with Bursary level English, Biology, Maths, Chemistry and Physics. The other main aspect of my life was rowing. From the ages of 16 - 18 I was a member of the NZ U19 Rowing Squad. Rowing was my passion and my life. I started my first year at University of Auckland planning to do a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Exercise Science with an interest in enhancing sporting performance. One of the papers I took in my first year at university was General Psychology. I remember opening the course textbook and reading about the brain. And that was it, I was hooked! I changed the focus of my degree to neuroscience taking courses in psychology and neurophysiology. Then, in my final year, I found the last missing piece to the puzzle, pharmacology. Finally, I knew the direction I wanted my life to take. Working in the area of drug development for the treatment of neurological disorders. At the end of my BSc I had to decide whether to continue at university and do a graduate degree or take a break and trial for the New Zealand women’s Olympic rowing squad. However, this decision was made for me as I seriously injured my back during training, ending my rowing career. I therefore turned my attention to my new passion, the brain, and enrolled in a Master of Science (MSc) with Professor Mike Dragunow in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Auckland. My research investigated whether the expression of growth factors, endogenous compounds that provide support to neurons, were altered in Alzheimer’s disease using post-mortem human brain tissue from the Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank. Within a year I had upgraded to a PhD with co-supervision by Distinguished Professor Richard Faull. I completed my PhD in 1997 and took up a postdoctoral position at Northwestern University in Chicago under the supervision of Professor Martha Bohn investigating the potential use of GDNF (glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor) gene therapy for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. My postdoctoral fellowship was supported by funding from the Neurological Foundation. I was the first recipient of the Philip Wrightson Fellowship. The three years I spent working at Northwestern University were incredible. The field of gene therapy was very new and the concept of using this technology to deliver compounds too large to cross the blood brain barrier, such as GDNF, was very exciting. The research we performed at Northwestern University was pioneering and recently, GDNF gene therapy for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease went into clinical trial lead by a former PhD student of mine, Dr Adrian Kells at Brain Neurotherapy Bio Inc. After my time at Northwestern University, I started my academic career at the University of Auckland in June 2000. Over the past 20 years I have been involved in a lot of exciting projects and worked with many wonderful people. On my return to New Zealand I continued my work in gene therapy, focusing on the use of gene therapy for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. We were the first to demonstrate that delivery of the growth factor BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) to the brain using gene therapy can prevent the selective loss of neurons in the striatum in animal models of Huntington’s disease.