DOCUMENT

16 Headlines W hile most people in their twenties are discovering who they are, Jessie Jacobsen was making major discoveries in science. The geneticist and senior lecturer in Medical Genetics and Genomics at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, made her first breakthrough in the early 2000s, modelling Huntington’s disease with sheep. This contributed to one of the world’s first large models to better understand how the disease develops, and has been subsequently used to trial treatment options. For this, Jessie was named the MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year and nominated for New Zealander of the Year. Shortly after, Jessie received a Phillip Wrightson Fellowship from the Neurological Foundation to develop her research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, followed by a Repatriation Fellowship to bring this knowledge home, and a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society to establish a genetic research group studying neurodevelopmental conditions at the University of Auckland. Ten years on, we talk to Jessie about how that initial leg-up led to her role in founding the ‘Minds for Minds’ research network. What were you studying 10 years ago? Huntington’s disease (HD). During my PhD I contributed to the University of Auckland’s sheep model of HD. Those big projects are always a collaboration of great minds. I was standing on the shoulders of giants, Professor Russell Snell and Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull to name a few. It is a really nice model. Previous models were based on mice, but they live a short time. With sheep, we were able to create a late-onset model, which is important as the majority of HD is late-onset. Remarkably, the brain anatomy of sheep is very similar to humans. This enables us to study the effects of the HD mutation in brain cells before they are critically injured and lost to HD, which helps identify early markers of the disease and develop novel treatments. It’s a devastating disorder and it was very worthwhile work. How important was the Philip Wrightson Postdoctoral Fellowship to your career? It meant I could take my research to Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and advance the model I helped to generate during my PhD. I was surrounded by some of the best geneticists in the world who were part of the original team that found the HD gene. Whole-genome sequencing was taking off during this time, and there I was at this amazing genetics centre right in the middle of it all. It opened my eyes to how it could help us understand more complex genetic conditions. Why did you return to New Zealand? I received the Neurological Foundation Repatriation Fellowship, which meant I could come home and set up a research group in New Zealand. New Zealand is a small country, so it can be hard to come back and get funding, so I’m very grateful I was given that opportunity. It was invaluable to gain international experience, but New Ten years on with Dr Jessie Jacobsen From a breakthrough in Huntington’s disease to changing the lives of children with autism. "This work is only possible due to hard working clinicians, excellent community organisations and an incredible team on the inside ..."