Otago School of Medical Sciences

Browse by

Sub-communities within Otago School of Medical Sciences

Department of Biochemistry [161]

Collections in Otago School of Medical Sciences

Recent Deposits

Regulation of MET Alternative Splicing

Goodin, Elizabeth Anne (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The way in which a gene transcript is processed has a wide impact on protein translation. Alternative splicing, in particular, is under tight regulation and deviations from this can result in disease. The thesis presented ...
Genotype by environment interaction for fertility traits in New Zealand dairy cows

Craig, Hadyn James Barrett (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The majority of New Zealand dairy farms operate a seasonal production system. This requires that a cow calve every 365 days, which means the cow must recover from calving and present for mating 12 weeks from the calving ...
Bidirectional Control of Synaptic Transmission by Endocannabinoids from Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Neurons

Jamieson, Bradley (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The stress response is a physiological process which allows an organism to rapidly change its function in order to cope with a changing environment and maintain internal balance. The neuroendocrine stress response is ...
Examining Inducible Expression of the Poxvirus Anaphase-promoting Complex Regulator (PACR)

Patel, Pramit (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The anaphase promoting complex (APC/C) is a multi-component ubiquitin ligase complex responsible for targeting cell cycle proteins for degradation. APC/C consists of at least 12 subunits with additional cofactors. Poxvirus ...
Reconstructing Social Prehistory from Genomic Data in the Indo-Pacific Region

Cox, Murray Paul (Thesis, Doctor of Science, 2017)

Reconstructing the evolutionary history of our species has traditionally been the purview of archeology and linguistics, but is now increasingly influenced by genetics. However, the information held in our DNA cannot be ...
Investigating a role for Fezf2 in the mature brain

Clare, Alison Jane (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

The excitatory projection neurons (PNs) of the cortex encode the messages that are critical for mediating higher cognitive function. In the primary motor cortex (M1) PNs integrate signals, which regulate sensory driven and ...
The role of the microtubule cytoskeleton and Myosin-Vc in the anterograde trafficking of KCa3.1 to the basolateral membrane of polarised epithelial cells.

Farquhar, Rachel (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The intermediate conductance, Ca2+-activated K+ channel (KCa3.1) is targeted to the basolateral membrane in polarised epithelia where it plays an essential role in promoting trans-epithelial ion transport. KCa3.1 is expressed ...
Exploring the Evolution of the Torso Activation Module Components in the Arthropods

Skelly, John (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The Arthropods are diverse and vary extensively in their form, function and life history strategies. Some of the apparent variation is likely to be due to how different species control their development through the evolution ...
Cellular Mediators of BCG Vaccine-Induced Protection

Steigler, Pia (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Tuberculosis (TB) has surpassed human immunodeficiency virus as the world’s deadliest infectious disease. The intradermal TB vaccine, bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), prevents disseminated childhood TB yet fails to protect ...
Investigating the Role of Peroxiredoxin 1 in Hydrogen Peroxide Signalling

Powell, Mathew (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Cells have elaborate responses to cues provided to them. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is often produced as a second messenger in response to various growth factors binding to their receptors. Cells contain a range of peroxidases ...
Insights into Cytochrome c Function: Implications of Naturally Occurring Mutations

McDonald, Kirstin Olivia (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The first naturally occurring mutation identified in the highly conserved cytochrome c protein was discovered in a New Zealand family. The missense mutation,\results in the substitution of glycine for serine at residue 41 ...
Memory HQ: the possible central role of the epigenome in maintaining LTP.

Kyrke-Smith, Madeleine (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Plasticity mechanisms such as long-term potentiation (LTP) are believed to underlie the formation and maintenance of memories. LTP induction stimulates downstream signalling pathways that lead to changes in gene expression ...
The effect of vestibular lesions on the hippocampal cholinergic system

Aitken, Phillip (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) produces profound behavioural changes, some of which do not appear to be directly associated with the acute loss of vestibular information, such as hyperlocomotion and spatial memory ...
A FRET reporter of conformation in Hsc70

Rutledge, Malcolm Thomas (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Hsp70s are the most well conserved protein family known, and yet little of their activity within the cell is understood. Hsc70 is a constitutively expressed member of the Hsp70 family found in the cytosol of almost all ...
The reticular thalamic nucleus: revealing a novel phenotype of neurons and describing changes in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease.

Miller, James (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The reticular thalamic nucleus (RTN) is a thin band of neurons that lies between the cortex and the rest of the thalamus. Most of the inputs to the nucleus are from collateral axons of thalamocortical and corticothalamic ...
Exploring potential biomarkers for ME/CFS

Noble, Alexandra Jacqueline Kiri (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is a complex disease which affects many different body systems. Disturbance of the immune system, brain and central nervous systems cardiac function, dysregulation of metabolism generally ...
The impact of copy number variation on gout, and the apple genome

James, Boocock (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Copy number variation (CNV) is a common feature of eukaryotic genomes, and a growing body of evidence suggests that genes affected by CNV are enriched in processes associated with environmental responses. Traditionally, ...
Excitatory ionotropic glutamate receptor expression in the reticular thalamic nucleus in a mouse model of absence epilepsy

Barad, Zsuzsanna (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Absence epilepsy refers to a group of genetic, generalized epilepsy syndromes associated with absence seizures, which are especially common in children and juveniles. Childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) is the most prevalent ...
The proportion of fast and slow neuromuscular junctions in young and old mice

Lloyd, Jordan (Thesis, Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences with Honours, 2017)

Human skeletal mass and strength increase from birth until ~35 years of age, thereafter a decline in mass and strength occurs in a process called sarcopenia. Beyond 60 years of age muscular weakness falls to a point where ...
Transcriptome analysis and annotation of Trichoderma virens, a beneficial plant fungal endophyte

Liu, Yuxin (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Trichoderma is a ubiquitous, culturable genus of soil-borne fungi. Many species in the Trichoderma genus possess the ability to colonise plant roots and form mutualistic endophytic relationships. In particular, Trichoderma ...