Picture a physicist. Do you imagine someone madly scribbling equations about nuclear energy or black holes? What about someone doing research on dementia? Or figuring out better ways to do high-tech medical imaging? These are the sorts of things a Magnetic Resonance...
An app to help Māori affected by mate wareware (dementia) and to raise awareness of the disease has been launched. The app, Mate Wareware, was developed by researchers from the University of Auckland and AUT University following the largest-ever study of Māori...
Neuroscientist Helen Murray’s special expertise with a tiny part of the brain is helping unravel the mysteries of Covid-19’s neurological effects. For weeks, University of Auckland neuroscientist Helen Murray pored over scans of brain tissue from people who had died...
Our Dementia Prevention Research Clinics (DPRC) just celebrated an exciting success. After months of extensive preparations in Auckland and with the help of DPRC Tissue Banks in Christchurch and Dunedin, Dr Erin Cawston and her DPRC Tissue Bank team couriered off some...
Brain Research New Zealand is very pleased to report that it has made a further set of grant awards, for short-term projects running in the first half of 2021. While these grants are necessarily short-term due to the Centre of Research Excellence winding up after June...
Brain Research New Zealand (BRNZ) is very interested in addressing a number of brain health-related issues arising from the terrible pandemic that has spread across the globe. Even though New Zealand has been relatively spared, nonetheless ~2000 people have been...
Associate Prof Joanna Williams’ work at the University of Otago is all about blood – and the clues hidden within that might tell us what is going on in the brain. Using the blood as a window into the brain, Joanna aims to find biomarkers that can help us diagnose...
Assoc Prof Ping Liu has been researching L-arginine, a highly versatile semi-essential amino acid, for almost 20 years – and it doesn’t sound like she’ll get tired of it anytime soon. L-arginine is widely present in our bodies, including our brains. What makes...
The nose and sense of smell provide early indicators of Covid-19 and neurodegenerative diseases, and could be important in determining the cause of diseases, writes Professor Maurice Curtis of the University of Auckland. Have you ever experienced a momentary smell...
How a hunch led to a new way to grow human brain cells in the lab to investigate an array of challenging disorders. When it comes to the brain disorders that occur with ageing – Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases – there is no cure. The illnesses are...
In a world first, Dr Makarena (Margaret) Dudley has described Māori understandings and experiences of the ageing brain and dementia. Her research highlights the importance of cultural identity, oranga wairua (spiritual wellbeing) and whānau support for caring for...
Here in New Zealand, people are living longer, and the average life expectancy for both men and women has steadily increased since the turn of the twentieth century. In 1981, people aged 65+ represented less than 10% of the population [1]. Today that fraction is...