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Speakers 2016
Assistant Professor Jessica Bardill
Jessica Bardill is an Assistant Professor of Native American Literatures at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Her research interests include the alternative narratives offered in the literatures and films created by indigenous peoples, particularly those peoples of North America. Her work extends into legal and scientific realms with particular attention to the uses of genetic and genomic information by, for, and with indigenous peoples, from research protocols and biospecimens to informed choice and citizenship determinations. Prior to ECU, she held postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (American Indian Studies), and Duke University (Center for Public Genomics). She received her Ph.D. is from the Department of English at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina) and her Bachelor's degrees in English and Biology from Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia).
Associate Professor Mik Black
Mik received a BSc(Hons) in statistics from the University of Canterbury, and a MSc (mathematical statistics) and PhD (statistics) from Purdue University. After completing his PhD in 2002, Mik returned to New Zealand to work as a lecturer in the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland. An ongoing involvement in a number of Dunedin-based collaborative genomics projects resulted in a move to the University of Otago in 2006. Mik's research focuses on the development and application of statistical methods for the analysis of data from genomics experiments, with a particular emphasis on human disease. Mik is also heavily involved in two major initiatives designed to put in place sustainable national research infrastructure for NZ: NZGL (New Zealand Genomics Ltd) for genomics (where he was the interim Bioinformatics Team Leader during 2012-2013), and NeSI (New Zealand eScience Infrastructure) for computing/eResearch.
Dr David Chagne
A Senior Scientist with Plant and Food Research since 2004, Dr Chagné’s research focuses on the application of genetic mapping and genomics to elucidate the genetic control of important plant characters, with a strong underpinning interest in the study of DNA variations in plant genomes.David has catalogued single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the apple and pear genomes and identified markers linked to significant traits, including fruit antioxidant content, red flesh and peel, crispness and aroma and further designed a SNP assay that has been used to accurately predict fruit quality of young apple seedlings using genome-wide selection, years before they first set fruit. He is also an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Otago.
Dr Rob Elshire
Rob has a long history working with molecular markers in agriculture. He was the inaugural director of the Illinois Genetic Marker Center at the University of Illinois. This facility provided the agricultural research community there access to molecular marker technology in a cost effective manner. At Cornell University, he developed a low cost, high-throughput genotyping method commonly known as genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). While the impetus for developing GBS was to serve the needs of the plant breeding community, the technology has enjoyed wide adoption in many areas of biological research.
In addition to developing the molecular method, he has collaborated in transnational research projects, organized numerous workshops and contributed code to analyze GBS data in a reproducible way. Rob has set up four high throughput molecular marker laboratories, developed computational systems around those and worked with hundreds of scientists on the application of marker technologies in their work. He continues these efforts with his current projects which focus on collaboratively building New Zealand capability in GBS and related technologies to enable genetic analysis in a wide range of biological questions.
Revel Drummond
Tanya has a BSc(Hons) in genetics and a BA in anthropology, both from the University of Otago. For the past four years she has been working in Tony Merriman’s laboratory conducting research focused on the genetic, dietary, and social influences of gout in New Zealand, working towards a PhD in genetics from the University of Otago. She has just submitted her thesis. In her time at Otago Tanya has also been involved in teaching a variety of subjects and age groups, from introducing intermediate school age children to genetic techniques and concepts, teaching high school students during science camp weeks, tutoring in second and third year undergraduate genetic laboratories, and lecturing to third year anthropology students. She has also helped run workshops on statistical analysis and computer coding. Once she has graduated with her PhD she aims to begin working as a post-doctoral fellow.
Alexi Drummond
Nanibaa’ Garrison (Navajo) is an assistant professor in the Treuman Katz Center of Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of Washington Department of Pediatrics. Her research interests include genetic research on Native American communities, informed consent, and issues with privacy and confidentiality. Garrison earned her Ph.D. in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University. She received her bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Arizona.
Professor Neil Gemmell
Professor Neil Gemmell is the AgResearch Chair in Reproduction and Genomics at the University of Otago and the Head of the Department of Anatomy. He leads a research group that blends ecology, population, conservation and evolutionary biology with recent technological spin-offs from the various genome projects. A recurring theme in his research is that of reproduction, with past and current projects spanning mating systems and mate choice sperm function, sex determination, sex allocation, and inter-sexual genomic conflict. Neil also has interests in several congruent fields of research, particularly the evolution of the mitochondrial genome, the evolution of microsatellite DNA, the evolution of sex determining and sexual differentiation mechanisms and the processes that lead to speciation. Currently he heads a research consortium that is sequencing the genome of the tuatara in partnership with Ngati Wai iwi.
Dr Kimiora Henare
Kimiora (Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa) is an HRC Eru Pomare Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, based at the University of Auckland. He earned his MHSc in Pathology in 2006, and PhD in Biomedical Science in 2014; both at the University of Auckland. His main research interests include the role of the immune system in cancer and how the immune system can be reinvigorated to fight cancer. Specifically, he is the principal investigator for an HRC-funded project exploring the potential of re-educating macrophages as strategy for cancer therapy. Kimiora also carries out dual biomedical/cultural advisory roles with two nationwide multidisciplinary research projects involving tissue collection, biobanking, genomic research and related data.
Associate Professor Maui Hudson Whakatōhea, Ngāruahine, Ngā Puhi
Maui is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato. He is an interdisciplinary researcher with extensive experience across a diverse range of research areas including traditional medicine, indigenous research ethics, interface between indigenous knowledge and science, Maori economic development and Maori health. Maui has been a member of a number of national and institutional ethics committees and was part of the team that developed Te Ara Tika: Guidelines on Maori Research Ethics – A framework for researchers and ethics committee members. He is the principal investigator for Te Mata Ira, a research project exploring Maori views on Genomic research and biobanking, and is a co-convener of the SING-Aotearoa programme.
Professor Parry Guilford
Prof. Parry Guilford is a Principal Investigator in the Cancer Genetics Laboratory, University of Otago, the Director of the Centre for Translational Cancer Research, and the Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Pacific Edge Ltd (PEL). He completed his MSc at Otago in 1983, and his PhD at Cambridge University in 1989. His current research interests include the genetics of inherited and sporadic cancers, in particular stomach cancer. Other active research involves the development of genomic-based diagnostic tools for early cancer detection and the use of a synthetic lethal approach to target tumours with mutations in tumour suppressor genes.
Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith
Lisa Matisoo-Smith is the Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anatomy at the Universtiy of Otago, and a Principal Investigator with National Geographic’s Genographic Project. She is interested in understanding human history and human variation in general, but her primary area of interest is in looking at the biological evidence for the human settlement of the Pacific. She applies both ancient and modern DNA techniques to reconstruct migration pathways, and is increasingly interested in how human history and population origins may be related to some of the health issues facing Pacific populations today. Lisa works throughout the Pacific, but her most recent work has focused on New Zealand, Tokelau, Papua New Guinea and South America. She is committed to working in close collaboration with the communities she studies and strongly believes that such relationships benefit the research in ways not often appreciated.
Associate Professor Richard Macknight
Associate Professor Macknight has 23 years experience and a strong track record in plant molecular-genetic. He has published widely in this area and has held numerous research grants. He is internationally recognized for his leading role in this understanding the regulation of flowering time. A/P Macknight has a joint appointment Plant & Food Research Ltd and collaborates widely with scientist to translate knowledge from model species into crop plants.
Associate Professor Tony Merriman
“I did my undergraduate and PhD in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Otago, graduating with a PhD in bacterial genetics in 1993. In 1994 I started post-doctoral research in Oxford. In 1998 I returned to Otago where I have established a group studying the genetic and environmental causes of autoimmune diseases in the first instance (type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis), and more recently gout and associated metabolic conditions (type 2 diabetes, kidney disease etc). The gout research has a focus on Maori and Pacific people and communities. I have a long-standing collaboration with Ngati Porou Haoura Charitable Trust.”
Dr Katharina Ruckstuhl
Ngāi Tahu, Rangitāne ki Wairau
Dr Ruckstuhl is the Associate Dean Māori at the Otago Business School. She is a cross-disciplinary policy researcher in the areas of Māori language, small business, sci-tech innovation, and ‘social licence’ in the mining industry. She contributed a chapter to The Routledge Handbook of Bioarchaeology in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, examining Māori knowledge frameworks in the context of two case studies that involved the return of kōiwi tāngata (ancestral remains). She is currently leading a research team in a national science challenge – Science for Technological Innovation - looking at how sci-tech can better connect with Māori. Katharina has a number of governance, research and other roles for Ngāi Tahu, at both a pan-tribal and for her local hapū of Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki.
Dr Nick Roskruge
Nick Roskruge is of Ātiawa, Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Tama-ariki descent and a senior lecturer and major leader in horticulture and Māori resource & environmental management in the Institute of Agriculture and Environment at Massey University in Palmerston North. Nick is also a research fellow with Lincoln, on the Māori advisory board to several other research institutes and a member of the Statutory Decision Committee for HSNO with the Environmental Protection Authority (Prior to this Tumuaki (Chair) of Ngā Kaihautu Tīkanga Taiao the Statutory Māori reference group for the EPA). In 2013 Nick was the recipient of a Fulbright award and spent several months in the USA based at Cornell University (upstate New York) and involved with a number of other state universities around ethnobotany and potato genomic programmes. Nick is involved in a wide range of Māori centric projects, the most well-known being the National Taewa Māori project, and also Tahuri Whenua (National Māori Horticultural Collective).
Professor Khyla Russell
Dr Russell (Kai Tahu) recently retired from the Kaitohutohu role at the Otago Polytechnic where she had responsibility for the facilitation of relationship building between Otago Polytechnic and the Ara-i-Te-Uru Papatipu Runaka, the wider Maori Community, and Maori tertiary providers.
Dr Russell is a member of the Ako Aotearoa Maori Caucus and the Maori Representative on the Ako Aotearoa Reference Group. Dr Russell co-authored Te Ara Tika – The Maori Ethical Framework and is a member of the Te Mata Ira research team exploring Maori views on Genomic research and biobanking.
Michael Steedman
Dr Reremoana (Moana) Theodore’s research interests include lifecourse research, child health and development, and Māori health and education. She is the Acting Co-Director of the National Centre for Lifecourse Research (NCLR). She is an Investigator on the Graduate Longitudinal Study NZ (GLSNZ) and Te Kura Mai i Tawhiti – a Māori community research programme. She is a Co-Investigator on the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Her current research focuses on how education impacts on Māori health and wellbeing over time. Moana is a former HRC Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie Postdoctoral Fellow.
Dr Phil Wilcox
Dr Wilcox (Ngati Rakaipaaka) is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Otago’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and has experience in applied genomics and statistical genetics. He is the current convenor of MapNet a NZ-wide collective of gene mapping scientists (see https://mapnet.agresearch.co.nz/mediawiki/index.php/MapNet:About) and the Project Leader of the Virtual Institute for Statistical Genetics (www.visg.co.nz). Dr Wilcox also established Te Aroturuki, a group of Maori scientists and advisors who developed a process to assist Western research scientists engage with Maori communities. He is currently a Kaihautu Maori in both the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge and the BioProtection Research CoRE, as well as a mandated spokesman for Ngati Rakaipaaka regarding the Rakaipaaka Health and Ancestry Study. He has worked on genetics of plant species (particularly forest trees) and humans diseases..