Auckland Medical Research Foundation

21/08/2026

Hear from Prof Alys Clark about her research to 'raise the profiles' of the uterus and placenta in her interview on RNZ. These amazing and complex organs deserve the spotlight for the important role they play for us all.

Despite hosting the start of every human life, the uterus is studied far less than other organs.

19/07/2026

Every breakthrough begins with a researcher.

Our latest Momentum update shares inspiring stories of researchers improving lives, remembers the remarkable Professor Alistair Gunn, and celebrates the progress being made towards launching the Futures Fellowship Fund to support researcher careers.

Read more and discover how donor support is helping create healthier futures across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Read more: https://www.medicalresearch.org.nz/post/momentum-progress-in-medical-research-through-new-leadership-with-lasting-impact

Support researchers: https://www.medicalresearch.org.nz/make-a-donation

Medical research changes lives. Across Aotearoa New Zealand, researchers are advancing new treatments, improving health outcomes, and tackling some of the biggest challenges in cancer and neonatal health.

01/07/2026

Congratulations to the Fetal Physiology and Neuroscience Team for this notable award and recognition of their work to protect babies' brains.

You can read our recent tribute to Prof Gunn here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DQy5fdvb3/

A University of Auckland team responsible for optimising life-saving treatment for oxygen-deprived infants has won the Prime Minister's Science Prize 🏆

Find out more below 🔗

14/05/2026

We join many tributes across Aotearoa and globally honouring the life of Professor Alistair Gunn.

Prof Gunn’s research led to the development of therapeutic hypothermia (brain cooling after oxygen deprivation): a simple, safe and globally adopted treatment protecting newborn babies’ brains after oxygen deprivation at birth. His work continues to save countless lives and enable millions of children to grow and thrive without disability.

For us at AMRF, this legacy is deeply personal. Prof Gunn acknowledged our early support helping his team develop the first cooling machines and undertake the critical studies making this breakthrough possible. Those studies established how and when cooling could protect the newborn brain, laying the foundation for international clinical trials that followed and for a treatment now used internationally.

He once described therapeutic hypothermia as “an overnight success, after 20 years of preclinical research”—a reflection of his persistence, scientific rigour, and commitment to improving outcomes for babies and their families.

Behind his extraordinary impact was scientific brilliance, and a deeply human presence. He is remembered by colleagues globally as kind, generous, quietly determined, endlessly curious. He was known as a mentor who gave his time freely, a collaborator who lifted others, and a person whose warmth was felt in every interaction.

Tributes shared across the global research and clinical community speak to a life defined not just by achievement, but by character. He was known to be a brilliant colleague, an outstanding researcher and human being, humble and supportive, and someone whose work profoundly improved the life chances of so many. Others recall his encouragement of early-career researchers, his thoughtful questions, and genuine care he showed to those around him.

His legacy continues in clinicians who carry forward his work, researchers he inspired, and families whose lives are forever changed because of his dedication.

06/05/2026

AMRF-supported researcher A/Prof Amy Chan aims to bring asthma deaths to zero. Together, your support turns possibility into progress.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019034004/how-smartwatches-could-be-used-to-predict-asthma-attacks

Explore how digital markers in asthma can predict an asthma attack before it happens. Learn how technology can transform asthma attack management.

05/05/2026

Congratulations to AMRF‑supported doctoral student Xin Yi Lim on her recent publication. Her work has already been accessed more than 300 times in its first week, highlighting strong international interest in her important research.

Xin Yi’s study explores safety monitoring for medicines‑related problems associated with natural health products, and the different steps countries take to safeguard public health.

Donor support enables researchers like Xin Yi to generate evidence that strengthens medicine safety and informs better health policy worldwide.

Read more here:

Background Pharmacovigilance is the science and practice of safety monitoring for medicines-related problems; it is also applicable to a broader scope of health products, including natural health products (NHPs). The NHPs industry is a key stakeholder in pharmacovigilance for NHPs, but academic revi...

04/05/2026

Asthma affects one in eight New Zealanders — and for Māori and Pacific communities, the risk is even higher.

With support from the Auckland Medical Research Foundation, Associate Professor Amy Chan is leading innovative research using smartwatch data to predict asthma attacks before they happen.

Amy's work could revolutionise asthma care by giving people early warnings — 'like a smoke alarm for their lungs' — and give them the chance to act before an attack becomes life‑threatening.

This is the power of backing researchers with ideas that challenge the status quo.

This Asthma Awareness Week, watch Amy explain the research and why it matters:
https://www.medicalresearch.org.nz/post/digital-markers-in-asthma-harnessing-technology-for-asthma-attack-prediction

Explore how digital markers in asthma can predict an asthma attack before it happens. Learn how technology can transform asthma attack management.

07/04/2026

"I hope that people and families living with motor neurone disease see my work and that it gives them hope."

AMRF Career Advancement Fellow Dr Molly Swanson is investigating microglia cells, an often overlooked part of the brain’s immune system. In motor neurone disease, these normally protective cells can switch into a harmful state that accelerates nerve cell death.

Molly’s research asks: can these cells be reprogrammed to protect the brain again? Using advanced tools like CRISPR gene editing and human brain tissue, her team is identifying the genetic switches behind this damaging transformation and testing how to turn them off.

Today on World Health Day 2026, Molly’s work highlights why long‑term investment in researchers matters. 'Science powers health' through building evidence and creating pathways to future treatment and every gift to AMRF helps fund that progress.

Read more about Molly’s research and what drives her work.

When Dr Molly Swanson’s son was less than a week old, she learnt he had a rare genetic disorder that affects only two people in New Zealand.

01/04/2026

This World Autism Awareness Day, we’re highlighting the potential of researcher‑led work to change outcomes early in life.

Dr Alice McDouall, our inaugural First Fellowship Postdoctoral Fellow, is investigating a promising treatment for mild hypoxic ischaemic brain injury at birth, a condition linked to lifelong outcomes including autism, epilepsy and learning difficulties.

Her research is exploring whether an existing drug could prevent brain injury progression if used at the right time and holds the potential to inform future clinical trials and promise for a targeted treatment for infants with mild hypoxia ischemic injury.

This is the power of backing researchers early. Read more about Alice's work here and donate securely on our website to help support researchers with the potential to improve lives across a lifetime.

https://www.medicalresearch.org.nz/post/newsletter-amrfs-impact-in-2025