{"id":599,"date":"2021-01-22T13:00:20","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/?p=599"},"modified":"2021-01-25T05:55:17","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T16:55:17","slug":"studying-cancer-biology-to-help-our-taonga-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/studying-cancer-biology-to-help-our-taonga-species\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying cancer biology to help our taonga species"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Growing up in Bavaria, Germany, Lara Urban loved being out getting dirty while spending time in nature\u2014and she also had a thing for all sorts of off-beat animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd sharks,\u201d she recalls, laughing. \u201cI especially liked sharks.\u201d<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s little wonder that, as an adult, Lara\u2019s now \u201chaving an amazing time in New Zealand\u201d working with two of the world\u2019s most endangered species, the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d and the takah\u0113. (True, they\u2019re a bit cuter than sharks, but still … )<\/p>\n

What is surprising, though, is the academic route that Lara\u2019s taken to become a post-doctoral researcher (and Humboldt Research Fellow) at the University of Otago.<\/p>\n

As a self-professed \u201cnature child\u201d, always wanting \u201cto do something for nature conservation\u201d, it was obvious she\u2019d take ecology at university. She then jumped at the chance to travel the world studying exotic wildlife.<\/p>\n

Then Lara made an abrupt-seeming career change\u2014a PhD on the genetics of human cancer at the European Bioinformatics Institute and the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n

Yet for Lara, it all made perfect sense. Her conservation field experience had made her aware of the huge potential of genetic and genomic technology, and the mass of useful information made available by these modern techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realised I had to become really good at analysing these sorts of data,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

To get more proficient in bioinformatics and analysing complex biological information, she therefore searched for \u201cthe most statistical PhD position\u201d she could find. Working on the molecular biology of cancer ticked this box perfectly, she says. And this, in turn, eventually gave her the opportunity to bring together \u201cthe molecular experience in the lab\u201d with her original love of nature and conservation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI\u2019m definitely more of a biologist than a statistician,\u201d she says, \u201cand I wanted to combine them both. It\u2019s super-exciting, taking things used in one field to a different one.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Otago seemed an ideal place to begin her post-doctoral research.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand researchers are pioneers in using genomic techniques in the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems,\u201d Lara says.<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s applying the same models and methods she used to study human health to help save two of this country\u2019s iconic endangered birds\u2014for instance, by looking at \u201cthe genetic pathways of disease susceptibility\u201d in k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d or \u201cthe genomic diversity of wild takah\u0113 populations\u201d compared to those in sanctuaries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Illustration by Poppy Ollerenshaw Whittle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She\u2019s also really keen to further employ genomic technology for conservation purposes; for example, by using environmental DNA analysis of soil and water samples to monitor species remotely and non-invasively, while \u201cinterfering as little as possible\u201d in fragile ecosystems. (At Cambridge, Lara co-founded a real-time DNA sequencing organisation, PuntSeq, that monitors biodiversity in the River Cam.)<\/p>\n

Having been at Otago for a year, she\u2019s still enjoying the Kiwi experience and, especially, spending plenty of time in this country\u2019s unique natural environment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI find New Zealand\u2019s remote nature exciting, it\u2019s an amazing experience to see what nature is really like,\u201d Lara says. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most amazing places in the world and has come up to all my expectations, including really nice and open people.\u201d<\/p>\n

And another major boost is the opportunity to collaborate with a hugely diverse group of ecologists, conservationists and M\u0101ori iwi, \u201cthe kaitiaki (guardians) of these taonga (treasured) species\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the perfect set-up of how science should be conducted,\u201d Lara says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Written by Mick Whittle<\/em><\/p>\n

Images provided by Lara Urban, thanks to the Takah\u0113 and K\u0101k\u0101p\u014d Recovery Teams<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in Bavaria, Germany, Lara Urban loved being out getting dirty while spending time in nature\u2014and she also had a thing for all sorts of off-beat animals. \u201cAnd sharks,\u201d she recalls, laughing. \u201cI especially liked sharks.\u201d So it\u2019s little wonder that, as an adult, Lara\u2019s now \u201chaving an amazing time in New Zealand\u201d working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37560,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37560"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}