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Headlines 9 Associate Professor Joanne Davidson University of Auckland Cooling and anti-inflammatory treatments for oxygen deprivation at birth $299,924 Oxygen deprivation at birth can lead to death, brain damage and disability. Thankfully, we are now able to reduce brain damage for many babies by cooling their brains after birth. However, some babies will still develop brain damage despite treatment. The study will investigate whether an anti-inflammatory drug as well as cooling might protect the brain better than cooling alone. This will test the belief that exposure to inflammation, in addition to oxygen deprivation, leads to more severe brain damage, and does not respond as well to cooling treatment. Dr James McQuillan University of Otago Mothers under stress: treating postpartum anxiety $256,740 Approximately one in five women suffer from anxiety during or following pregnancy. How the brain regulates anxiety in mothers is poorly understood, posing a significant barrier to effective therapeutic strategies. This study aims to identify a target for therapies to treat postpartum mood disorders via a novel pathway discovered in the brains of mother mice. It is thought the pathway may inhibit neurons that regulate the response to stress in postpartum mothers. Dr Narun Pat (Pornpattananangkul) University of Otago Removing ethnic bias frombig data sets $306,849 This project aims to tackle and correct ethnicity bias in artificial intelligence and big data, ensuring people of all ethnicities can benefit from exciting new technologies. Dr Pat has a specific interest in the big data collected from brain scans, which have led to the development of brain-based biomarkers, found to be useful for disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Applying these biomarkers to people of different ethnicities can be problematic. The project’s goal is to formally examine and ease this problem via various bioinformatic strategies. Its full title is Harnessing multimodal MRI, genomics and deep transfer learning to reduce ethnicity bias in MRI-based biomarkers. Small Project Grants Dr Indranil Basak University of Otago Efforts to revive dying neurons $15,000 The human brain hosts different cell types, including neurons and astrocytes. Defects in astrocytes can affect neighbouring neuronal health; however, what induces the neuronal demise is not fully understood. Dr Basak will test whether malfunctioning astrocytes (the brain’s support cells) can kill neurons in Parkinson’s disease and whether correcting the astrocytes may revive the dying neurons. The project’s full title is: Investigating astrocyte-neuron crosstalk in Parkinson's disease. Dr Christina Buchanan University of Auckland Unlocking hope for early-onset Parkinson’s patients with the PINK1 gene $14,879 Everyone is likely familiar with Parkinson's disease, probably thinking of an older man, stooped over, with an uncontrollably shaking hand. But did you know there is a type of Parkinson's that can occur in people as young as 12, and that this can be inherited from parents who have never shown any symptoms of Parkinson's themselves? Dr Buchanan is investigating a genetic form of Parkinson's that causes disease in young, mainly Pasifika, people. Rather than doing experiments on people themselves, they will take small skin samples and grow cell-lines that can be used to test future possible therapies. The project’s full title is Unlocking hope: establishing preclinical models to investigate PINK1 early-onset Parkinson's disease. Madeline Mills University of Canterbury New technology for swallowing rehabilitation $14,700 Madeline Mills, a PhD student at the University of Canterbury, will investigate new and improved methods for swallowing rehabilitation following neurological disease or injury. Her research will investigate the ability of the new device to evaluate brain activation during swallowing. The project’s full title is Validation of the WiBCI-16T electroencephalography (EEG) system for detection of swallowing movement related cortical potentials (MRCPs) .