Our history

The Liggins Institute was set up in 2001, fulfilling the vision of Professor Peter Gluckman and fellow founding directors, Professors Murray Mitchell, Stewart Gilmour and Jane Harding to establish a centre for internationally recognised research in developmental biology and its application to improving human health.

It brought together a nucleus of world-class scientists already working on related research within The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. The founders were subsequently joined by leading scientists from New Zealand and overseas to form a critical mass of researchers from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines. Together they bring multi-disciplinary approaches to investigating important health issues in ways that will translate discoveries in basic sciences into strategies to improve the health of individuals and whole populations.

The Institute is named after one of NZ’s most eminent medical scientists, Emeritus Professor Sir Graham Liggins. Sir Graham achieved international fame in 1960s and 1970s for clinical innovations based on fundamental biomedical research which increased the survival of sick and preterm babies.

Today Liggins scientists are proud to build their research on his pioneering example.

Much of the Institute’s research is focused on finding ways to prevent preterm birth and improve the health of babies born prematurely. Researchers have discovered that preterm babies have health profiles that are distinctly different from those born at full term. Some of this information has come from following the very same babies born during Professor Liggins’ clinical trial nearly 40 years ago, and their children.

Read about Sir Graham Liggins

2001

• Liggins Institute is established. Three research teams move into a stand-alone building with purpose designed laboratories.
• Research is focused in four areas: pregnancy and birth; fetus and newborn; growth, development and ageing; brain and behaviour.
• Professor Gluckman is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and awarded the Rutherford Medal.
• Professor Lord Robert Winston launches the Science, Medicine and Society Programme.

2002

• Liggins Institute is officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll.
• Liggins researchers are awarded 2 programme grants from the Health Research Council of NZ and one from the Marsden Fund.
• Professor David Barker (Southampton, UK) visits to deliver the University of Auckland’s Robb Lectures. Barker is widely credited with being the first to show an association between maternal nutrition and adult health.

2003

• National Research Centre for Growth and Development (NRCGD), hosted by the Liggins Institute is established as one of NZ’s Centres of Research Excellence.
• Peter Lobie joins Liggins to establish a group in breast cancer research.
• Evidence that poor maternal nutrition is associated with preterm delivery published in the prestigious journal Science.
• The CoolCap (a device invented by Liggins researchers to prevent brain damage due to oxygen deprivation during birth) receives health innovation award.
• International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease established with Liggins Director Peter Gluckman as first President.
• Institute benefits from Artworks at the Hilton charity auction event.
  Grant from Lion Foundation funds Maternal Nutrition Laboratory.
  HRC grant awarded for study of children who were born prematurely.

2004

• Team McMillan BMW sponsors the Institute’s news magazine Dialogue.
• Leading international scientists Profesor Eric Kandel (Nobel laureate), Sir Patrick Bateson (Biological Vice-President of the Royal Society) and Lord Robert Winston visit the Institute and give public lectures.
• Brain Rescue Monitor (a device invented by Liggins researchers to detect abnormal function in new born babies’ brains) is commercialised and becomes recognised equipment in neonatal nurseries in Australasia.
• Friends of the Liggins Institute Charitable Trust established to support work of the Institute.
• Discovery by Liggins researchers that growth hormone produced abnormally by cells in the breast is responsible for the spread of breast cancer is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• Discovery that links between premature birth and later risks of diabetes is published in New England Journal of Medicine.
• An international trial shows efficacy of hypothermia treatment for neonatal brain damage, pioneered at the Liggins Institute.
• Research that establishes relationships between the early life environment and later risk of disease published in leading journals Science and Nature.
• Partnership programme for school teachers is established at the Liggins.
• First Māori health summer studentships are awarded at the Liggins as part of Whakapiki Ake programme.
• Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) ranks Liggins scientists top in NZ for health and medical research.

2005

• Governor General of NZ Dame Silvia Cartwright opens the Maurice and Agnes Paykel Clinical Research Unit at Liggins Institute.
• Jubilee Crippled Children Foundation Trust supports Liggins brain repair research.
• Lancet publishes a follow up study by Liggins researchers of children born during the clinical trial of Sir Graham Liggins’ treatment for premature babies. The trial shows no adverse effects of treatment 30 years later.
• Results of head cooling trial published in Lancet.
• Professor Roger Short (University of Melbourne) speaks at Artworks at the Hilton charity event in support of Liggins.
• Researchers discover how to reverse developmental programming in experimental animals.
• Research published showing links between evolution and timing of puberty.

2006

• Liggins becomes The University of Auckland’s first Large Scale Research Institute.
• US charity March of Dimes Foundation supports Liggins research into preterm birth.
• Prime Minister of NZ Rt. Hon. Helen Clark opens Sir John Logan Campbell Classroom.
• First Seasons of Life lecture series.
• Epi Gen Research Consortium launched.
• Marsden Fund grant awarded to develop mathematical model for early life influence on later life health.
• Discovery that the muscle protein myostatin is a factor in placental function.
• Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse visits Liggins Institute.
• Popular science book Mismatch, why our world no longer fits our bodies by Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson (University of Southampton) published.
• Tertiary Education Commission funds Liggins high school science programme.
• Biotechnology company Neuren Pharmaceuticals announces development of memory boosting drug and promising cancer therapy based on Liggins research.

2007

• Liggins breast cancer research receives funding from NZ Breast Cancer Research Trust.
• Sequenom facility for epigenetics research established at Liggins.
• Centre for Human Evolution, Adaptation and Disease at Liggins hosts first international workshop on forecasting in development.
• Collaboration established with University of Cambridge.
• Professor Lord Winston awarded a University of Auckland Hood Fellowship – establishes joint research project with Liggins scientists and opens Seasons of Life lecture series.
• Celebrating Creative Connections fundraising dinner and auction.
• LENScience established. First mentor programme brings achievements for school students.
• Professor Peter Lobie becomes New Zealand’s first professor of breast cancer research. Professor Murray Mitchell awarded James Cook research fellowship.
• NRCGD contract renewed with increased funding (University of Canterbury and LandCorp become members).
• Foundation of Research Science and Technology funds epigenetics projects.

2008

• Professor Peter Gluckman is awarded Distinguished Companion of the NZ Order of Merit (DCNZM) in New Year’s Honours list.
• Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences and Liggins Institute launch major research partnership.
• Professor Jane Harding becomes The University of Auckland’s Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research).
• International Healthy Start to Life Project hosts international meetings in Auckland and Wellington.
• Professor Lord Robert Winston awarded Honorary degree from The University of Auckland.
• Liggins Institute and Agresearch announce collaborations in research and education at National Fieldays.
• Cancer target discovered by Liggins researchers is licensed to an international biotechnology company for clinical development.
• Professor Michael Meaney (McGill University, Canada) awarded Hood Fellowship, opens Seasons of Life lecture series and collaborates in research.
• Research grants funded by FoRST.
• HRC funds 2 international research programmes based at Liggins.
• Auckland company Fertility Associates funds joint research fellowship.
• LENScience Connect broadcasts to schools begin.

2009

• Pastoral Foods for Health Research Centre established to maximise collaboration between Liggins and AgResearch.
• Professor Gluckman appointed first Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor. He resigns as Director but remains an active researcher at the Liggins Institute.
• Professor Wayne Cutfield appointed Liggins Director.
• Researchers show (in an experimental model) link between mothers’ diet during pregnancy and onset of puberty in their daughters.
• HRC programme grant Perinatal Care and its Long-Term Consequences awarded to Liggins research team.
• First text book on evolutionary medicine published: Principles of Evolutionary Medicine by Peter Gluckman, Alan Beedle (Liggins Institute) and Mark Hanson (Southampton).
• Seasons of Life lecture series: Darwin’s legacy celebrates Darwin bicentenary and sesquicentennial of the publication of On the Origin of Species.
• LENScience Connect programme wins TUANZ award for innovation in education.
• Liggins supporters stage unique fundraiser: the first Liggins Couture Car Boot Sale.
• Liggins Director Professor Wayne Cutfield wins HRC funding for international project to improve health risks for children born preterm.
• Professor Sir Peter Gluckman awarded prestigious David Barker Medal at the Sixth World Congress on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.
• Institute researcher wins National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee (NAEAC) Three Rs award.
   

2010

• Liggins research shows that moderate exercise during pregnancy may have long term benefits for children.
• Seelye Visiting Fellow, Professor Clare Hanson (University of Southampton) delivers public lecture: Eugenic values, eugenic costs.
• LENScience Director Jacquie Bay wins NZ Association of Science Educators Peter Spratt Medal which recognises sustained and innovative contributions to science education.
• Liggins Institute, friends and colleagues celebrate the life of Sir Graham Liggins who died 24 June 2010 aged 84 years.
• Friends of the Liggins reprise their successful Couture Car Boot Sale event at Team McMillan BMW to raise funds for Liggins research.
• Seasons of Life lecture series focuses on food, nutrition and health.
• LENScience Connect platform used by Faculty of Education to broadcast professional development seminar to teachers across New Zealand.
• Fetal and neonatal physiology research group receives University of Auckland International Research Team Development Award to assist in building international collaborations.

2011

• Liggins research contributes to international study showing epigenetic link between a mother’s diet during pregnancy and her offspring’s chances of obesity.
• Professor Sir Peter Gluckman is awarded an honorary Chair in the Faculty of Medicine at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
• Institute celebrates 10th Anniversary.
• Public lecture by Professor Robert Winston celebrates 100 years of combined science excellence by Cawthron Institute (90 years) and Liggins Institute (10 years).
• Professor Sir Peter Gluckman co-authors new book Plasticity, Robustness, Development and Evolution (CUP 2011) with Sir Patrick Bateson.
• Professor Jane Harding wins rare individual investigator award from US National Institutes of Health for CHYLD Study.
• Professor Sir Peter Gluckman is participant at United Nations summit on non-communicable disease.