We're proud to announce that Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull has been appointed as the inaugural Mātai Patron as he steps down from his role as a founding board member.

The occasion was celebrated with Mātai Whānau and friends, with a talk by Sir Richard on "My Unexpected, Exciting Career in Brain Research" about how he and his team overturned decades‑old assumptions about the brain by showing that adult human brains can generate new neurons — a discovery that has reshaped our understanding of learning, memory, and repair. He also shared highlights from pioneering work at the Centre for Brain Research on Huntington's disease, uncovering early markers of degeneration, as well as details on his personal journey. To mark the appointment, the Mātai Arataki room will be named in his honour. Arataki means to lead or guide.

Former scholarship recipients L-R: Sophie Hawthorne, Imogen Amor-Bendall, and Paige Richter with her mentor Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer.

If you are a Gisborne high school graduate with dreams of becoming a medical innovator, scientist, or researcher apply now for a Mātai scholarship at www.matai.org.nz/scholarships. Applications are open until 5 September.

The 2026 scholarships to date are made possible thanks to: Turanga Health, Gisborne Host Lions Club and Gisborne Wainui Lions Club, QUEST Trust, Dawsons Building Co, and Pultron Composites Ltd.

SPOTLIGHT ON FORMER RECIPIENTS

Sophie Hawthorne was one of the first recipients of the Mātai-Pultron scholarship in 2021 and has since completed a Bachelor of Applied Science in Medical Imaging through UCOL. She is now working as a medical imaging technologist in the Hawke's Bay, and has her sights set on post-graduate training in MRI. "I have found my passion in delivering imaging services and truly love my job. Spending time in the MRI suite with Paul and Taylor [Mātai MRI technologists] back in my first year of study definitely seeded my interest in MRI and opened my eyes to the impact that imaging services have on not only patient pathways but the possibilities of research in the healthcare industry." 

Imogen Amor-Bendall moved to Dunedin to study First Year Health Science. "The Mātai student scholarship played a huge role in supporting me to pursue my undergraduate studies. Learning about the brain, taking an elective psychology paper, and being part of the Mātai summer internship all helped guide my decision to major in Neuroscience. This has allowed me to explore how the brain functions, and how it interacts with the body and environment to shape our behaviours and emotions. My degree and the internships at Mātai have set me up well for a range of opportunities in postgraduate study, particularly in the medical and research fields."

Paige Richter received a Mātai scholarship in 2021 and went on to complete summer internships in 2022/23 and 2023/24. She is now a third-year medical student studying at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland. Paige says, "Mātai has been with me every step of my journey and given me the opportunity to remain connected with my people and community and allowed me to thrive with the incredible research and networking opportunities. I was very fortunate to have gained an incredible mentor, Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer, a leading ophthalmologist, and Principal Investigator at Mātai, who has continued to support me. If I could give a piece of advice to students who are wanting to thrive in science, Mātai is the way to do that." 

We congratulate Dr Oka Sanerivi on representing Aotearoa on the world stage with his appointment to the World Congress Programme Committee, where he will join an international team shaping the programme for World Physiotherapy's premier event to be held in Mexico in 2027. Oka also attended the launch of The Real Face of Men's Health report at Parliament. He wrote the Pacific Health information of the report as part of the Centre for Men's Health at the University of Otago.

Oka (R) with Tim Marshall KSM (L) from Tauawhi Men's Centre at the report presentation.

A $299,000 project grant will support Mātai Hugh & Moira Green Senior Research Fellow Dr Maryam Tayebi and her team's ongoing research using brain imaging to better understand the effects of methamphetamine use and recovery.

Mātai Senior Research Fellow Dr Josh McGeown is receiving a $264,000 Philip Wrightson Fellowship to track how head impacts affect athletes' brains over time.

See more on their incredible research underway thanks to the Neurological Foundation support, and read more about Maryam and Josh and their personal journeys in the Aotearoa Brain Project interviews. 

"From brain injury to cancer, from Parkinson's to dementia – the ability to see what's happening inside an individual's brain and take a personalised approach to treatment is going to make a huge difference."
– FMHS University of Auckland and Mātai Principal Investigator A/P Miriam Scadeng

Inflammation is the brain's common response to many disorders, but until now, it has been invisible in the living brain.Miriam is working to validate whether UHC-MRI – a new breakthrough technology – can actually detect inflammation by matching imaging results with cellular and tissue markers. If successful, this could mean earlier detection, timely intervention, and reduced long-term damage across conditions from addiction and injury to dementia and cancer. Thanks to Neurological Foundation support, Miriam is working on a project that aims to correlate imaging changes with cellular and tissue markers of neuroinflammation to validate UHC-MRI - see the story.

Congratulations to Ayah Elsayed from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute on their collaborative conference abstract with Mātai: "Cardiac MRI Insights: Baseline ventricular and atrial metrics in a cohort of children from Tairāwhiti-Gisborne."

Drawing on advanced cardiac MRI and computational modelling from the Roadmap Tairāwhiti study, this work establishes the first baseline dataset of paediatric heart metrics in rural Aotearoa New Zealand. It lays an important foundation for future clinical and research advances in personalised and predictive medicine — an exciting step forward in paediatric cardiovascular research.

Elsayed A, Zhao D, Kumar H, Kwon E, Holdsworth S, Condron P, Taylor D, Cornfeld D, Potter L, Nash M: Cardiac MRI insights: Baseline Ventricular and Atrial Metrics in a Cohort of Children From Tairāwhiti Gisborne. Heart Lung and Circulation. Aug 2025. doi:10.1016/j.hlc.2025.06.110

Dr Daniel Cornfeld presented at the New Zealand Multiple Sclerosis Research Trust — a supporter of Mātai MS research – at their '10 years of MS research' celebration. Dr Cornfeld talks about the Mātai research that shows promise in better and earlier diagnosis of MS. 

Thanks to support from the Independent Research Association of New Zealand (IRANZ), we were privileged to be invited to the Parliamentary Science Forum, where Mātai Neurological Foundation Fellow Dr Josh McGeown shared recent work on mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) and concussion.

Dr McGeown spoke about how undetected brain injuries often lead to months of reduced quality of life, time missed from work or school, and escalating ACC payouts. He shared detail on how novel MRI techniques developed at Mātai may make these invisible injuries visible, enabling more accurate diagnosis, streamlined care pathways, and significant socioeconomic savings.  

Congratulations to Dr Maryam Tayebi (Hugh and Moira Green Senior Research Fellow), who was awarded Runner-up in the Aotearoa Brain Project (ABP) Award for Best Neuro-Related Early Career Researcher (ECR) Presentation at the Te Tītoki Mataora (TTM) Forum during HealthTech Week.

She presented a poster on the Methamphetamine Recovery Project (MERP), a collaborative initiative led by Mātai researchers, clinicians, and community groups in Tairāwhiti.

See the interview with ABP on her work and her story. 

New research led by our collaborators Assistant Professor Patrick Fillingham and Associate Professor Mehmet Kurt at the University of Washington, is shedding light on how amplified MRI can help identify brain aneurysms that may be at higher risk of growing or rupturing.
 
By examining how aneurysm walls move and how blood flows within them, their team uncovered important differences between stable and growing aneurysms. Growing aneurysms showed more uneven wall motion and irregular blood flow – both potential early warning signs of physical stress that could signal instability.
 
This breakthrough moves us closer to non-invasive methods for predicting aneurysm risk and enabling earlier, potentially life-saving intervention.
 
An aneurysm is a bulge in a weakened blood vessel wall, much like a soft spot on a tire. In the brain, aneurysms can grow quietly and dangerously – until they rupture, potentially causing stroke, severe bleeding, or death.

Paper: Cerebral aneurysm hemodynamics indicative of instability are associated with heterogeneous wall motion measured by amplified MRI 

Yellow areas show stress hotspots on the aneurysm wall – regions where blood flow changes most dramatically. These zones were significantly larger in growing aneurysms (bottom) compared to stable ones (top), suggesting a strong link between abnormal flow patterns and aneurysm progression.

Congratulations to the authors of a new BMJ Open study showcasing the long-term health benefits of a 10-week whole-food plant-based (WFPB) programme in Tairāwhiti. Run through a community GP clinic in Gisborne, the programme supported adults – 59% of whom identified as Māori – with obesity and elevated blood sugar. Participants lost an average of 5 kg post-programme, with 3 kg still lost at 36 months. Waistlines shrank by 6 cm, and while improvements in blood sugar and cholesterol weren't sustained, better dietary adherence led to better outcomes overall. This research highlights the lasting impact of community-led, culturally grounded care. 

Paper: Randomised waitlist-controlled trial of a 10-week community programme using a plant-based diet in a predominantly Māori population in Tairāwhiti (Gisborne)

A review paper led by the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, along with Mātai and collaborators, was awarded Editor's Choice in the journal Bioengineering.  

The review looks at the fact that MRI data from different hospitals or scanners can vary, making it harder to compare or combine results. To overcome this, researchers use a process called 'harmonisation' to make the data more consistent. The review found that machine learning shows strong potential for improving MRI consistency, but there is no standard way to measure success at this stage, so results should be interpreted carefully.

At the 2025 RANZCR Annual Scientific Meeting, Dr Daniel Cornfeld presented "Making the Invisible Visible," a bold new way of teaching MRI. Rather than following the conventional pathway of explaining MRI physics, Dr. Cornfeld turned standard teaching upside down — presenting contrast mechanisms and image formation in a way that is intuitive and clinically meaningful.

Guided by Kiwi pioneer Emeritus Professor Graeme Bydder, Mātai Senior Research Fellow Dr Mark Bydder, and with Charge MRI Tech Paul Condron, Daniel is driving both the development and clinical translation of methods that reveal structures previously unseen.

To make these concepts widely accessible, he has created an interactive MRI Teaching App, offering an intuitive way for clinicians, students, and radiographers to explore MRI principles.

Their work is detailed in the following paper: Cornfeld D, Condron P, Newburn G, McGeown J, Scadeng M, Bydder M, Griffin M, Handsfield G, Perera MR, Melzer T, Holdsworth S, Kwon E, Bydder G. Ultra-High Contrast MRI: Using Divided Subtracted Inversion Recovery (dSIR) and Divided Echo Subtraction (dES) Sequences to Study the Brain and Musculoskeletal System. Bioengineering (Basel).2024;11(5):441.

Mātai Honorary Research Fellow, Dr Ho‑Fung Chan, Aotearoa Foundation Senior Research Fellow at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute gave a talk on cutting‑edge lung MRI methods, how they're applied across pulmonary diseases, and how advanced imaging paired with computational modelling could deliver new clinical tools to improve lung health in Aotearoa. More information on Fung's work.  

Novel lung MRI acquired at Matai Medical Research Institute are used to create personalised computational physiology lung models for predicting changes in lung structure and function.

Dr. Josh McGeown (Mātai Neurological Foundation Senior Research Fellow), delivered a presentation at King's College on recognising and managing concussion in young athletes. His talk covered when to seek medical help, how to support recovery within the school environment, and the latest evidence guiding safer sporting practices. He also highlighted how to identify key signs and symptoms of concussion and shared insights into Mātai Institute's research, which aims to improve understanding of head impacts and enhance sports safety.

We were delighted to host Jordon Lima and Te Whetu Aarahi Kerekere, two outstanding emerging Māori researchers from Tairāwhiti, both trained at the University of Otago.

Te Whetu Aarahi (PhD candidate, University of Otago) is investigating pharmacogenes in a Ngāti Porou Hauora cohort, using Nanopore sequencing to understand how genetic variation influences drug response in Māori communities. Jordon (recent PhD submission, Te Aho Matatū) is working to inform the clinical use of a blood-based cancer test tailored for Māori communities. During their visit, they shared practice talks for the upcoming QWR Conference in Christchurch, where they will represent Indigenous health research with academic excellence and deep community connections.

Image: Te Whetu Aarahi Kerekere (L) and Jordon Lima (R)

Jordon Lima recently also presented Pītau Error - a simple fun game she has developed for teaching learners of all ages complex science concepts such as genetics, chemistry, and biochemistry through stories (including literacy and te reo Māori). The bilingual game uses familiar concepts such as whakapapa and sentence structure to build an understanding of for example - genetic terms, like deletion (a piece of DNA is missing), oncogene (a gene that, when switched on or altered, can make cells grow and divide too much), tumour suppressor (like a brake pedal for cells, stopping them from growing out of control — when it's broken, cells can keep multiplying unchecked), point mutation (a tiny DNA change where just one "letter" in the genetic code is swapped, added, or lost — like a typo in a word). Through this culturally connected game, families can begin engaging with science in a fun way, building curiosity and confidence that can grow into a lasting interest in more complex scientific ideas later in life.

A lot to celebrate with the ABI NeuroTech Lab, led by Dr Hamid Abbasi.  Dr Samantha Holdsworth, who collaborates with NeuroTech across a number of initiatives, joined the team for a special celebration of the Lab's recent achievements. Congratulations to Ali Roozbehi and Nima Sadeghzadeh on successfully passing their PhD provisional year reviews at Auckland Bioengineering Institute! We're proud of the momentum and energy across the NeuroTech team, and excited for what's ahead.

Nima Sadeghzadeh's PhD research focuses on automated segmentation and growth prediction of meningioma brain tumours. His recent submission to the BraTS 2025 Lighthouse Challenge at MICCAI was ranked among the top-performing methods worldwide — an outstanding international recognition of his work.

Pictured left to right: Jiangfan Yu (PhD student: correcting for noise in amplified MRI using deep learning); Callan Loomes (PhD student: automated segmentation of microscopic cells in applications for neuroinflammation); Ali Roozbehi (PhD student: GPU-accelerated AI surrogate models for predicting real-time brain-shift); Ines Boulefred-Derrar (Internship student); Dr Hamid Abbasi; Dr Samantha Holdsworth; Nima Sadeghzadeh (PhD student: automated segmentation and growth prediction of meningioma brain tumours). Missing: Dr Jason Correia (Neurosurgeon); Naima Noor (PhD student: AI-based meningioma brain subtyping from DNA methylation and imaging data); Manpreet Kaur (PhD student: Infant neurological disorder prediction from general movements); Shanan Chand (Research Assistant: AI in drug discovery of brain tumours).

Dr Brandi Shah, a Gisborne-based doctor specialising in youth and sexual and reproductive health, spoke about using participatory storytelling to improve patients' health and healthcare systems.

Drawing on her 15+ years of experience working with medically underserved communities, she shared how prioritising people's health stories as essential lived expertise could promote whole-person wellness, self-determination, and more just health systems.

Known for her collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach and her background in digital storytelling, Dr. Shah explored how elevating narrative in healthcare structures can bridge divides, strengthen community connections, and guide more inclusive health practices—building on her work in the US, abroad, and in Aotearoa.

Born and raised in te Tairāwhiti, Stu attended Riverdale Primary, Gisborne Intermediate, and Lytton High School before graduating from the University of Waikato with a Bachelor of Management Studies (Honours), majoring in Accounting and Management Systems.

A Chartered Accountant, Stu brings over 27 years of experience from BDO Gisborne, where he held a variety of roles including financial and management accounting, business analysis, IT support, and accounting software consulting. He also spent time at Eastland Group as Group ICT Administrator, further broadening his expertise in technology and systems.

Stu is deeply committed to his family—his wife Bridget and their children, Aiden and Alison. Outside of work and family life, he actively contributes to the community as treasurer of both the Gisborne Radio Club and the Gisborne Astronomical Society, and serves as a trustee for Whiti Ora Tairāwhiti (formerly Sport Gisborne Tairāwhiti).

Alireza is a bioengineer with a strong background in computational modelling of the brain, MRI data processing, and control theory. He is passionate about employing mathematical methods to improve patient outcomes. He started his academic journey as an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at the Sharif University of Technology in Iran, where he also attained his master's degree in applied mechanics. Later, he joined the brain pressure project (a collaborative project between the Animus Laboratory at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, Mātai Medical Research Institute, Eye Institute Auckland, and others) to pursue his doctoral study, during which time he developed an MRI-informed computational model to estimate brain pressure non-invasively. 

Alireza will join Mātai as a research fellow, where he will continue a joint role with the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, and will focus on integrating Mātai MRI sequences with computational technologies to find engineering solutions to clinical problems.

We farewell our wonderful Marketing & Events Coordinator Bree Allan, who is moving on to an exciting new role at Bayleys Gisborne. Bree has brought her creativity, energy, and trademark "can-do" attitude to everything she touched. From curating our monthly newsletters, managing our website and social media, to coordinating events and helping showcase Mātai Institute's story to the world – Bree's work has helped shine a light on the research, people, and kaupapa that drive us forward. Alongside her mahi, we've also been delighted to welcome her beautiful new Mātai baby, Layla, into the world – a special part of our extended whānau (as seen in the photo). It is also special to have her whānau connections continue at Mātai through Miriam Allan and Jackson Donovan-Monteith.

We are truly grateful for all that Bree has contributed to the Mātai whānau. She leaves behind a legacy of strengthened connections, well-run events, we know she will continue to thrive wherever you go. Bree - ngā mihi nui and arohanui from all of us at Mātai.

Elsbeth Nelson, an exceptional intern from the USA, spent six weeks with us contributing to several exciting projects, including our ultra-high contrast MRI methods and vision research.

Under the mentorship of Mātai Senior Research Fellows Dr Eryn Kwon, Dr Josh McGeown, and Dr Maryam Tayebi, she demonstrated outstanding dedication. Her work on data sets is supporting a number of projects, and enabled the UHC team to generate automated segmentation, which reduces hours of work on analysing data sets by hand. She also helped with vision projects to manually segment very small eye muscles and optic nerve sheaths to support research into eye health. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.

Radiologist opportunity in Tairāwhiti – make a real impact

Looking for more than just a job? Join the team in Tairāwhiti, where you can make a meaningful clinical difference while living in one of Aotearoa's most vibrant coastal communities.

✨ Deliver care where it's needed most
✨ Collaborate with Mātai on cutting-edge research
✨ Enjoy a lifestyle rich in culture, nature, and whānau

Contact Christina.Cullen@tdh.org.nz

Please feel free to pass this on to colleagues or friends who may be interested.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of hosting Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel MP, and Jo Luxton MP at Mātai. Our guests toured the facility and spent time with the team, hearing about current mahi across clinical imaging and research, and what's on the horizon for Mātai. We valued the thoughtful kōrero on how innovative imaging, research and innovation, education and workforce development, and community partnerships can uplift local health and well-being, and we also discussed some of the current challenges in the health and research environments. Ngā mihi to our visitors for making the time and for your ongoing interest in the work underway at Mātai.

We were honoured to welcome Jack Bourke, Head of Strategic Engagement at RCP, for a visit. RCP, leading advisors in the construction industry, have been generously contributing their time and expertise to the development of a business case around the Mātai campus plans, and other guidance. Jack provided valuable professional insights, and, in a unique addition to the occasion, drew on his background as a professional opera singer to share a song with the team.