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A little bit of cell death is perfectly normal within the brain, and that's actually quite healthy, but

What if an injury that creates a multi-million dollar burden on our health system could be treated differently 2018, and involves collaboration with orthopaedic surgeons at Auckland and Counties Manukau District Health

Health and medical researchers in Auckland are working right now to build a better future for us all,

The burden on patients, carers, health care providers and society will be higher in the most severe strokes Dr Doug Campbell from the Department of Anaesthesia at Auckland District Health Board leads the team

for the general public and will improve diagnosis of neurological diseases, which is a significant health Read more about heart health, blood pressure, MRI and more medical research in our 2021 annual report

Diabetes can cause irreparable damage to heart muscle and researchers hope to find a new therapeutic target Normal contraction and relaxation of the heart is controlled by rapid changes in calcium levels. Key proteins in heart muscle cells interact to move calcium ions and change calcium ion concentrations, ensuring regular heart beating. As a result of disease or injury, these normal interactions are impaired and the heart undergoes changes collectively known as cardiac remodelling. The net result is heart damage, with less efficient blood pumping, further affecting the rest of the body. Dr Marie-Louse Ward and her team from the Department of Physiology at The University of Auckland study the effect of cardiac remodelling in people with diabetes. Recently they showed that proteins known as “Epac” can cause alterations in calcium regulation inside heart tissue cells. They now hold an AMRF grant to examine the role of Epac in human heart diabetic disease. They hypothesise that it may be the prolonged or over-activation of these Epac proteins that results in changes to the heart’s ability to synchronise contraction and relaxation. Epac may therefore represent an attractive therapeutic target to improve diabetic heart function. She says, "We know there is a different subcellular abundance and distribution of Epac in diabetic hearts. And we know impaired calcium handling contributes to the development of diabetic heart disease. We're looking to see if the reduced contractile performance of diabetic hearts might result from disrupted energy supply, since this is also dependent on cellular calcium fluxes. "Epac proteins are also located within the mitochondria, and therefore play a role in the energy supply that fuels heart contraction. And since we know Epac plays a role in energy supply in heart tissue, it will be hugely satisfying to tie all the pieces of this story together, and develop a robust rationale to turn Epac into a drug target to help prevent some of the worst impacts of diabetes and diabetic heart disease. "These AMRF funds allow us to investigate those links and we're really grateful for the generosity of donors that enables us to do this work."

A new research study will focus on the analysis of a newly discovered signal in the blood that could be used early in cancer patients' treatment with immunotherapies, such as Keytruda, to detect whether the treatment is working for them. "As we know for all cancer treatments, there can be significant side effects from immunotherapy and so early detection helps avoid those and can allow a doctor to quickly respond, revise and select a different treatment," says Dr Cherie Blenkiron, co-lead investigator of the work based at the University of Auckland's Departments of Molecular Medicine and Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynaecology with Dr Colin Hisey. "Our project will analyse the usefulness of this new blood marker in New Zealand melanoma patients for the first time, and we will also develop a tool, a microfluidic device, that will offer quick and inexpensive testing." Once developed, these devices can be simply altered to detect a range of blood markers for use as ‘point-of-care’ tests to guide clinical decisions across a range of diseases, not only for people diagnosed with cancers. We believe that these tests, performed on a tiny blood sample, could become a simple and accessible aid to benefit all cancer patients and particularly overcome challenges for rural New Zealand patients. "As a Biologist and a Bioengineer our different viewpoints are very complementary and will help to tackle clinical problems through finding the right biological marker and at the same time to develop ways of testing that can be used almost immediately by our hospital laboratories," says Dr Hisey. AMRF donors are committed to supporting early career researchers. Dr. Blenkiron is in the process of establishing her new cancer biology laboratory, focusing on the analysis of extracellular vesicles, while Dr Hisey is a young investigator forging his research path into developing better tools and methods for understanding of how cancer cells talk to one another to enable their survival. This AMRF funding therefore provides significant support for both researchers at pivotal points in their research careers. It supports development of their ‘liquid biopsy’ research programme and provides educational opportunities for students in biomedical and bioengineering sciences. On a personal level, the opportunity to spend our days developing new tools that could one day be used to improve the lives of people undergoing cancer treatment is humbling. Read more about Dr Blenkiron's AMRF funded skin cancer research here.

"We have recently submitted our protocol paper outlining the plan for our focus groups and the randomised controlled trial (RCT) to JMIR Research Protocols and our paper is currently under review. You can find our preprint here," writes Dr Anna Serlachius of the Whitu app project team who are creating a mobile phone app aimed at providing young New Zealanders with tools to help them tackle anxiety and depression. What does this mean for the study? The methods are freely available for anyone to view, and the early registration of the trial's aims and outcomes can be measured and compared openly when it finishes. This type of open access publication is increasingly common and helpful to many researchers. Want a sneak a peek at the technology? View the Whitu app here on the Google Play store. Dr Serlachius says, "Eva Morunga and Nic Cao (our Maori and Pacific co-investigators) have been integral to helping us recruit and facilitate the focus groups for Maori and Pacific young people and with adapting the app to ensure Maori and Pacific youth find it culturally appropriate and engaging. "We are currently updating the Whitu app based on the feedback both from the pilot study and the focus groups. If all goes according to plan, we hope to have an updated prototype by the end of September after which we’ll start recruitment for the RCT. "And lastly, I also want to acknowledge our fantastic research assistants, David Lim and Anna Boggiss, who keep this project running smoothly. We have a fantastic team and are all very appreciative of the funding from AMRF." Look for more Whitu updates soon!

He says, “Nurses comprise a large, diverse and essential population within the health workforce. While they are trained to deal with the many challenges working in health presents, this pandemic creates as the Covid-19 pandemic is of primary importance to the nursing workforce and the entirety of our health

"Over the past couple of months, and with the valliant efforts of our game developer extraordinare, Tarique Naseem, our team has completed the prototype version of the app and it is now available via the play store (Android) and app store (Apple)." writes Dr Hiran Thabrew of the Whitu app project, a mobile phone app aimed at providing young New Zealanders with tools to help them tackle anxiety and depression. "You can sneak a peek at the app here on the Google Play store: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.carbonimagineering.whitu" Following a successful Facebook recruitment campaign, the researchers introduced all 20 participants for the open trial of the prototype app within a week and they are hopefully making good use of it as you read this. Dr Thabrew and colleague Dr Anna Serlachius are currently in the process of organising a series of focus groups for late July, including some especially for Maori and Pacific Island young people that will be led by Dr Eva Morunga (Maori) and Nic Cao (Pacific Island) members of the research team. Following feedback from the prototype users and focus group participants, they will refine the app to its final version and refine the methodology to successfully undertake the randomised controlled trial (RCT), hopefully commencing in August-September this year. Anna Boggis and David Lim-Tua, two young and bright research assistants have done an excellent job of coordinating efforts and designing the online survey forms used for the pilot study and forthcoming RCT. "Our whole team has really enjoyed working on this app.​ Thanks again for AMRF's generous support."

Vision Lab, I'm in an ideal position to develop targeted pharmacological treatments to restore lens health

using robots Young and emerging scholarship and fellowship recipients working across the spectrum of health their career prospects New work looking into the relationship between vaccine hesitancy and maternal health