Kaa-Sandra Chee
Contact Details
Email kaa-sandra.chee@otago.ac.nz
Tel 64 3 479 5087
Biography
Kaa-Sandra Chee's background is biomedical research where her active research interests included wound healing in ocular injury, disease and the causes of diabetic cataract. Kaa-Sandra has a particular interest in communicating science and creating links between science, society and policy.
She has a PhD majoring in biomedical science at the University of Auckland (2005) looking at the causative molecular agents of diabetic cataract. She also has an MSc with first class honours (2000) and a BSc in Biological Sciences (1998) from Auckland. During her PhD she was a recipient of a Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Bright Futures Top Achiever Scholarship as well as a University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship. Her Postdoctoral research was investigating corneal wound healing and the disease progression of macular degeneration with the focus on gap junctions. She has a particular interest in communicating science and creating links between science, society and policy.
Kaa-Sandra has just returned from the UK where she worked for Cheltenham Festivals to promote science communication. She was Manager of FameLab UK and Director of FameLab International. FameLab is a UK initiative that promotes scientists to communicate with the public, FameLab International takes this initiative out to 15 countries worldwide in partnership with The British Council.
Kaa-Sandra was part of the initial Oxygen Group, an initiative of the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology which identified young science leaders and seek their advice to influence science policy. Kaa-Sandra was awarded the Te Amorangi, National Maori Academic Excellence Award in 2007 and was the Alan MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year in 2001. She was selected as one of three New Zealand young scientists to attend the Nobel Prize Winners Meeting in Lindau, Germany in 2005 and was a participant in the 2003 Knowledge Wave Conference. She was elected Communications Fellow for the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2001 and participated in "Taking Science to the Streets" as part of the Auckland Festival of Science in the same year.
Between 1999 and 2002, Kaa-Sandra acted as mentor and tutor for Stage One Maori and Pacific students as part of the Tuakana Programme - a leadership development programme initiated by the University of Auckland Business School. In 2005 she was a limited term tutor for the Certificate in Health Sciences for Maori and Pacific students.
Selected Publications
- Kerr NM, Johnson CS, de Souza CF, Chee KN, Good WR, Green CR, Danesh-Meyer HV. Gap junction protein connexin43 (GJA1) in the human glaucomatous optic nerve head and retina. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2010; accepted.
- Chee KN, Vorontsova I, Lim JC, Kistler J, Donaldson PJ. Expression of the sodium potassium chloride cotransporter (NKCC1) and the sodium chloride cotransporter (NCC) and their effects on rat lens transparency. Mol Vis 2010; 16:800-812.
- Donaldson PJ, Chee KN, Lim J, Webb KF. Regulation of lens volume: implications for lens transparency. Exp Eye Res 2009;88:144-150.
- Chee KN, Kistler J, Donaldson PJ. Roles for KCC transporters in the maintenance of lens transparency. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2006;47:673-682.
- Kistler J, Merriman-Smith R, Young M, Gonen T, Cowan D, Chee KN, Lin JS, Green C, Hasiler L, Engel A, Donaldson P. Molecular solutions to lens transparency. NZ Bio Sci 2001;7:35-37.
- Lorimer J, Chee KN, Green CR. Modulation of gap junction channels in a cardiomyocyte culture model induced reentrant arrhythmias. Cell Biol Int. submitted.
- Halim A, Chee KN, Green CR, Sherwin T. Chimeric porcine-human corneal engineering. Tissue Eng. in preparation.
Recent Presentations at Professional Meetings
- Chimeric human-porcine corneal engineering. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) 39th Annual Scientific Congress, Perth, Australia. (2007)
- Non-healing corneal recovery triggered by regulation of direct cell-cell communication. American Society of Cell Biology, Washington DC, United States of America. (2007)
- Non-healing corneal recovery triggered by regulation of direct cell-cell communication. International Gap Junction Conference, Washington DC, United States of America. (2007)
- Gap junction distribution in the normal & keratoconic human. International Congress of Eye Research (ICER), Argentina, South America. (2006)
- 55th Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners, Lindau, Germany. One of 3 NZ PhD students selected to attend by the Royal Society of New Zealand. (2005)
- Volume regulation in the lens: a role for chloride cotransporters (KCC & NKCC). The RANZCO 37th Annual Scientific Congress, Auckland, New Zealand. (2005)
- Roles for cation-cotransporters in the maintenance of lens volume and transparency. MedSci Conference, Queenstown, New Zealand. (2005)
- An emerging molecular model for cell volume regulation in the rat lens. Lens satellite meeting of ICER, Rotorua, New Zealand. (2004)
- Interaction of the chloride cotransporters KCC and NKCC to control the volume in rat lenses. ICER, Geneva, Switzerland. (2003)
- Facing the Future: the evolution of the Public Service to meet the challenges ahead. Invited speaker at the Public Services of New Zealand Senior Managers Conference, Wellington, New Zealand. (2002)
- Novel opportunities to prevent cataract. Maori & Pacific Island Conference, Auckland, New Zealand. (2001)
- Volume regulation in the lens: a role for chloride cotransporters. Queenstown Molecular Biology Conference, Queenstown, New Zealand. (2001)
- Volume regulation in the lens. Cell Volume Conference, Queenstown, New Zealand. (2001)
- “Eyespy” public seminars. Body Odyssey Exhibition, Te Papa National Museum, Wellington, New Zealand. (2001)
- Volume regulation in the lens: a role for chloride cotransporters (KCC & NKCC). The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), Fort Lauderdale, United States of America. (2000)
- Volume regulation in the lens. Physiological Society, Waiheke Island, New Zealand. (2000)