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Headlines 9 Meet the inaugural Dawn Fellow To say Dr Whitney Whitford was excited to receive the first ever Dawn Fellowship in the latest funding round from the Neurological Foundation is an understatement. The 30-year-old biological scientist from the University of Auckland is closer to ecstatic. Whitney received a three-year, $330,747 grant to study the inherited neurological disorder Charcot-Marie- Tooth (CMT). She is supervised and mentored by the accomplished Dr Jessie Jacobsen, known for her research into treatments for Huntington’s Disease and Autism Spectrum Disorder. “This is a huge opportunity for me to lead my own research with some potentially very meaningful outputs for sufferers of this disease,” Whitney says. CMT is the most common inherited neurological disorder, affecting about 1 in every 6400 New Zealanders. It causes damage in the peripheral nerves supplying the hands and feet and affects touch and sense. It is an incredibly complicated disease. Whitney explains the genetic basis of CMT is extremely heterogenous – that is the genetic mutations that cause the disease vary extensively, making diagnosis and treatment challenging. “While it has been established that genetic mutations are responsible for CMT, it is not the result of a single mutation, but rather thousands of mutations in over 100 genes.” Whitney’s aim is to unravel the genetic basis of CMT utilising a combination of DNA samples, the latest high performance computing technologies, and information gleaned from a local herd of cows with the disease. It’s an ambitious project that could only be achieved with a significant grant such as the Dawn Fellowship due to the amount of resource and time involved. For example, the genetic sequence of each DNA sample Whitney collects takes up so much data it must be stored on a hard disk. “You need a really powerful computer that can take that information and align it to a reference genome,” Whitney says. Thankfully New Zealand has one such supercomputer – NeSI, (New Zealand eScience Infrastructure) - a high performance computer utilised by universities and research organisations to carry out data-intensive research on a vast scale. “What I’ll be looking for is any anomalies in that genetic sequence. If we identify one that looks different and is also connected to nerve function, we can then analyse that portion further to see if it has anything to do with the disease,” Whitney says. “This could potentially uncover new biology which in turn could illuminate potential targets for treatment.” Her research is particularly important to better understand the traits of CMT in New Zealand’s population, which is characterised by a unique mix of ethnicities. An interesting aspect of Whitney’s research agenda is her plan to study CMT from the cellular level through to large model systems in New Zealand cattle. She explains an incidental finding from New Zealand’s genetic programme to increase milk production in our dairy herd has been the discovery of cattle with naturally occurring CMT. These bovine display similar physical characteristics as human CMT patients, for example they are physically smaller and have an awkward gait. “Cows are quite a good model of comparison because their neuron length is similar to that of humans. It’s a fantastic opportunity to see if there are any parallels and eventually we may be able to trial treatments in these cows.” Whitney extended her thanks to the foresight and generosity of the Dawn estate for supporting a young researcher and creating an opportunity for significant inroads into understanding CMT. About the Dawn Fellowship The Dawn Fellowship is based on the estate of Barbara Dawn, which included an inheritance from her brother Bob. In 2019 the Dawn estate gifted $3m to the Neurological Foundation to be invested to fund an ongoing fellowship for scientists or clinicians to carry out research into Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease. Barbara and her brother Bob were born in Auckland in the late 1920s and lived their whole lives at their Remuera family home. Neither married or had children, focussing instead on careers at the Chelsea Sugar refinery and the Auckland Bedstead Company, the family business inherited from their father. Both Barbara and Bob led very understated and simple lives preferring not to spend money on themselves despite their wealth. Before Bob died in 2007 they made plans so that their joint legacy would be shared with the various charities they believed in. After Barbara’s death in 2018 their wish was fulfilled and generous gifts were distributed to their chosen charities.