DOCUMENT

ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT 2022 FROM A PHD TO SUPERVISING PARKINSON’S AND HUNTINGTON’S RESEARCH Dr Ruth Monk from the University of Auckland has received three grants from the Foundation to advance our understanding of Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease. These grants have taken Dr Monk from a PhD to supervising their own major study. Dr Monk received: • A Postgraduate Gillespie Scholarship in 2015 for doctorate research. Dr Monk developed a novel model of Huntington’s disease (HD) using direct cell reprogramming. • A travel grant to attend the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) International Neuroscience Meeting Chicago, 2019. They were the only New Zealand speaker at the event. •A First Fellowship in 2021 for a two-year study exploring loss of smell as an early indicator of Parkinson’s disease. With so much research already completed at such a young age, Dr Monk had plenty to share when they presented in Kerikeri as part of the Neurological Foundation’s Brain Matters series. One of our supporters said this about Dr Monk’s talk: I just want to thank you very much for tonight’s event. I am a high school biology teacher and the opportunity to hear about the research was so valuable to me. Thanks for hosting it at the Turner Centre which is so accessible to many in the community. From tonight’s career pathway I have lots of relevant content to share with my students as well as Ruth Monk’s career pathway. Once again thanks so much. TEN YEARS ON: THE RIPPLE EFFECT Geneticist Dr Jessie Jacobsen, from the School of Biological Sciences and Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland made her first breakthrough in the early 2000s when she created a model of Huntington’s disease. This contributed to one of the world’s first large models to better understand how the disease develops. Shortly after, Jessie received a Philip Wrightson Fellowship from the Neurological Foundation to develop her research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, followed by a Repatriation Fellowship to establish a genetics research group in New Zealand. In the last ten years she has built up the Mind for Minds research network. It is the first genetic research programme for autism in New Zealand. The lab has sequenced more than 350 individuals with autism and more than 700 individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions. INTENSIVE CARE AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT Dr Deidre Jansson was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship to relocate back to New Zealand after completing a Wrightson fellowship in Washington. Her research explores why people often develop cognitive impairment after a stay in intensive care, and whether disruption to sleep and circadian rhythms is involved. She was delayed coming back to New Zealand, waiting for a spot in MIQ. We were able to support Dr Jansson with not only her travel costs, but also the cost of MIQ. RESEARCHER ROAD SHOW We hit the road in August to talk directly to researchers in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin about how we run the funding applications process, the feedback we provide and the support available for early career researchers. G AWARDED 2020 2021 11