A healthy start to a research career
The Liggins Institute’s vision statement “A healthy start for a healthy life” refers to its research focused on the health of women and children and the life-long legacy of early-life events. Institute researchers and postgraduate students are working to understand how poor health and nutrition during pregnancy and early childhood leads to obesity, diabetes and heart disease later in life.
High-achieving postgraduate students are involved in all aspects of the institute’s translational research, undertaking biomedical, clinical and analytical research projects. Their work is frequently included in high profile publications and prize lists and leads on to positions at some of the world’s leading research organisations. Over the last month, three Liggins students have been awarded MSc degrees with first class honours and three new PhDs have been awarded.
Graeme Fielder’s PhD “Characterisation of potential novel mammary gland oncogenes: glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and stromal cell-derived growth factor 20 (SF20)” has taken him down a path of entrepreneurship. Fascinated by the commercialisation potential of breast cancer technologies, he became involved in the University of Auckland student-led business and biotechnology entrepreneurial initiatives Chiasma and Spark, winning a number of challenges and serving as both CEO and Chair of Spark.
After completing his PhD research at the Liggins Institute he held a business development position at the Crown Research Institute, Plant and Food Research. Last year’s award of a prestigious Fulbright-Platinum Triangle Award in Business allowed him join the MBA programme at Stanford University, California.
This year, he and another former student with the Liggins Institute Breast Cancer Research Group, Francis Hunter, are participants in one of 10 teams which have won an international competition to accelerate the passage of emerging breast cancer research technologies to market.
“The premise of the challenge was to develop a commercialization plan for an invention, related to breast cancer treatment and diagnosis, developed at the National Cancer Institute,” says Graeme.
Read more of Graeme’s story
Dr Alexandra Wallace took time out from clinical work as a paediatrician for PhD research with the Institute’s LiFePATH research group, investigating the long term effects of anaemia during fetal development.
Fetal anaemia is known to induce a number of adaptations in the fetus in order to preserve myocardial and systemic oxygen supply, and hence end-organ oxygen consumption. In man, the most common cause of fetal anaemia is Rhesus disease.
Fifty years ago Sir William Liley performed the first in utero transfusion for fetal anaemia due to Rhesus Disease at National Women’s Hospital, Auckland. During her research Alexandra traced some of the earliest recipients of this treatment to investigate the long-term effects of fetal anaemia and its treatment. Her thesis was supervised by Distinguished Professor Jane Harding and co-supervised by Dr Stuart Dalziel (Children’s Emergency Services, Auckland District Health Board).
Alexandra is now working as a Paediatrician at Waikato Hospital but remains involved with the LifePath group, particularly with regard to investigation of cardiovascular outcome following exposure to anaemia secondary to preterm birth.
Watch Alexandra’s prize-winning presentation and read more about her research.
Biomedical scientist Amita Bansal investigated the molecular biological effects of preterm birth and neonatal hyperglycaemia on the developing pancreas and liver for her PhD research with the LiFePATH group. Her thesis was supervised by Professor of Neonatology Frank Bloomfield with Dr Jane Alsweiler as co-supervisor and Dr Kristin Connor as adviser. Dr Connor, a former post-doctoral fellow at the Liggins Institute is now a research fellow at the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto, Canada.
Amita was active in postgraduate student organisations at the Liggins Institute and the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and won a number of awards for presentations of her research. She is currently one of two student representatives on the Council of the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) and was Chair of the Early Career Researchers committee of the DOHaD Society of Australia and New Zealand organising the first ever DOHaD ANZ Young Investigator Session as part of the role.
Amita is currently a postdoctoral fellow working with renowned diabetes researcher Professor Rebecca Simmons at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health, where she is now Chairing both the Biomedical Postdoctoral Council International Committee and the Biomedical Postdoctoral Council Seminar Committee.
Read more about postgraduate research opportunities at the Liggins Institute
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