Our mission is to discover how free radicals and antioxidants work inside the body and how this knowledge can be used to diagnose and treat human disease and maintain optimal health.
Our history
Glenn Vile, Christine Winterbourn, and Tony Kettle (late 1980s).
The development of Mātai Hāora - Centre for Redox Biology and Medicine has been an organic process, beginning in the early 1970s when Christine Winterbourn first joined Robin Carrell in the Clinical Biochemistry Department of the Christchurch Hospital.
Not long afterwards they transferred to the newly opened Christchurch Clinical School and in the late '70s / early '80s Christine Winterbourn set up her own laboratory, which subsequently became known as the Free Radical Research Group in 1990.
In 2012, the group was re-established as the Centre for Free Radical Research with four principal investigators, three of whom were previous PhD students of Christine Winterbourn: Margreet Vissers, Tony Kettle, and Mark Hampton. Christoph Goebl was made the fifth principal investigator in 2021 and Nina Dickerhof became the sixth principal investigator in early 2023.
The Centre announced it's new name, Mātai Hāora - Centre for Redox Biology and Medicine, at a one day symposium and celebration for the University of Otago Research Group of the Year award in February 2023.
Centre for Free Radical Research milestones
| 2023 | The Centre is renamed to Mātai Hāora - Centre for Redox Biology and Medicine |
|---|---|
| Nina Dickerhof made the sixth principal investigator | |
| 2022 | The Centre wins University of Otago Research Group of the Year Award |
| 2021 | Christoph Goebl made the fifth principal investigator |
| 11th and 12th Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grants awarded | |
| 2019 | 10th Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grant awarded |
| 2018 | 10th BBiomedSc(Hons) student graduates |
| 2015 | Festschrift held for Christine Winterbourn, marking 50 years since her first scientific publication |
| 2015 | 5th Health Research Council (HRC) Programme Grant awarded |
| 2014 | 25th PhD candidate graduates |
| 2012 | Group re-established as the Centre for Free Radical Research with four principal investigators; Christine Winterbourn, Tony Kettle, Margreet Vissers and Mark Hampton |
| 2011–12 | UOC laboratories closed due the Canterbury earthquakes |
| 2003 | 10th PhD candidate graduates |
| 1991 | First Health Research Council (HRC) Programme Grant awarded |
| 1990 | Laboratory became known as the Free Radical Research Group |
| 1983 | First PhD student graduates |
| 1979/80 | Christine Winterbourn set up her own laboratory |
| 1976 | First BMedSci student graduates |
| 1973 | Transferred to newly opened Christchurch Clinical School |
| 1972 | First publications with Robin Carrell, including one in Nature on haemolytic anaemia |
| 1971 | Christine Winterbourn joined Robin Carrell in the Clinical Biochemistry Department, Christchurch Hospital |