Funding to research drug abuse and cancer treatment
Two Victoria University of Wellington PhD students have received 2015 Todd Foundation Awards for Excellence.
Two Victoria University of Wellington PhD students have received 2015 Todd Foundation Awards for Excellence.
The awards, administered by Universities New Zealand, aim to support projects that promote excellence and encourage the development of new concepts, technology or research that will be of benefit to New Zealand.
Dane Aronsen from the School of Psychology has been awarded $9,500 to investigate the effects of the common drugs of abuse, cocaine and MDMA, on brain systems that underlie drug addiction.
Harmful drug use is estimated to cost New Zealand $6.5 billion annually, in the forms of healthcare, crime, lost productivity, and other diverted resources, not to mention the loss of quality of life. Dane’s PhD is supervised by Professor Susan Schenk.
Abigail Sharrock from the School of Biological Sciences has been awarded $5,000 for her research project which seeks to understand how tiny biological machines called nitroreductase enzymes can activate anti-cancer drugs for new cancer therapies.
Abigail aims to develop an improved treatment technology with fewer side-effects to provide cancer sufferers with a better quality of life and a much better prognosis. Her research will also have applications in regenerative cell biology studies. Her PhD is supervised by Dr David Ackerley.
Among the other award winners around the country include research projects on alleviating pressure on stormwater networks, improving the performance of seismic energy dissipation mechanisms during earthquakes and developing a real-time cardiac MRI tracking technique.
Applications for the 2016 Todd Foundation Awards for Excellence close on 1 March next year.