April 13, 2015
Grant for innovative gout study
A University of Otago pathology researcher has won a $150,000 Health Research Council explorer grant to identify new drug targets to combat gout.
Explorer grants are for innovative or unconventional proposals that have potential for major impact.
Associate Professor Julia Horsfield and colleagues at Otago and Auckland will use zebrafish to study the genetics behind the body’s regulation of uric acid.
Previous studies have identified about 30 areas of the human genome that control uric acid levels, and finding out more about these DNA regions could would open up avenues for developing new classes of drugs.
In New Zealand gout affects 10 to 15 percent of Maori and Pacific Island men.
Zebrafish are used as a model in health research as they have a high degree of genetic similarity to humans and many of their biological systems and molecular pathways closely resemble our own.
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