Grants & Projects

Wellington-based medical researchers have received up to $73,684 in Research For Life’s second funding round for 2023. Research For Life funds innovative quality research undertaken by researchers in the early stages of their careers who through their work, will advance the quality of healthcare in the Wellington region and beyond. This... Keep Reading

Wellington-based medical researchers have received up to $178,000 in Research For Life’s first funding round for 2023. Research For Life funds innovative quality research undertaken by researchers in the early stages of their careers who. Through their work, will advance the quality of healthcare in the Wellington region and beyond. This... Keep Reading

What a difference a year makes. When writing this report in 2021 our borders were shut to visitors, returning New Zealanders had to secure a place in MIQ, and we were still under the traffic light COVID-19 restrictions. As we emerged from the Delta lockdown the city streets remained quiet and a trip to the South Island found tourist hot spots... Keep Reading

Research For Life has provided funding for Dr Katherine Wood of the translational immunology team leading research to answer important questions about how to manipulate MAIT cells (mucosal associated invariant T cells) to activate and suppress the immune system. Keep Reading

Dr Michelle Thunders is a senior lecturer in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington. In 2017 she received a $27,700 research grant to undertake research to help identify cardiac biomarkers in young patients presenting with myocardial infarction (MI). Keep Reading

Jodie Chandler is a Research Officer at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research. She received a travel grant from Research For Life to present her research findings at the Hydra Conference on Molecular and Cellular Biology of Helminth Parasites in Greece in 2017. Keep Reading

I have been working as an Occupational Therapist in the area of neurology throughout my career.  I am drawn to the complexity that this client group can present with and having to really engage with them to determine how to manage their difficulties as holistically as possible. Fatigue is such a common difficulty experienced in neurological... Keep Reading

Prescription opioids such as morphine, fentanyl and tramadol are used to treat pain following surgery and cancer pain. However, these drugs become ineffective when used long-term. Currently, 1 in 6 New Zealanders suffer from chronic pain and this severely impacts their quality of life and ability to work. We are committed to finding an... Keep Reading

As a doctor caring for our sickest and most vulnerable babies I want to make sure that we do our utmost to understand the problems faced by babies born at extremes of gestational age, or those born with other complex medical and surgical problems and to understand better what we need to do to improve their health and well being both now and... Keep Reading

Brian Corley's field is diabetes and metabolism, current work involves assessing energy expenditure as well as the effects of fasting in individuals with type 2 diabetes. He is a practicing clinician working in the field of diabetes and endocrinology. The problems of obesity and diabetes are substantial, and while our treatments are based on... Keep Reading

Connie Gilfillan’s research at the Malaghan Institute has the potential to help treat cancer by targeting the immune system. Here she talks about her work and her quest to find answers to some tough questions. My research is looking into the role of particular immune cells in cancer immunotherapy. Immunotherapy seeks to use the body’s own... Keep Reading

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease that affects 1 in 1,400 New Zealanders and is of significant burden to New Zealand health. In multiple sclerosis, immune cells attacking parts of the brain and causing neurological symptoms of MS. Our research has shown that clozapine, a drug currently used to treat schizophrenia and other... Keep Reading

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of colorectal carcinoma in the world. It is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in males and the second in females. In this project we will use electron microscopy to investigate the intracellular location of two proteins linked to poor outcome in colon cancer. This will help determine their role... Keep Reading

Due to modern technology and building design, the environments in which we live and work are becoming warmer. One consequence of these more stable environments is that we may be expending less energy to regulate the temperature in our bodies. As obesity is caused by an imbalance between our food intake and the energy we expend each day,... Keep Reading

Cancer research at the Malaghan Institute operates on several fronts with many intersecting approaches, all seeking breakthroughs which will help to contribute to novel New Zealand-made health treatments. PhD student Connie Gilfillan’s research at Malaghan focuses on Dendritic cells (DCs), which are an immune cell population that was only... Keep Reading