FLAG Researcher Spotlight: Dr Jarred Griffin

Dr Jarred Griffin

“… have tenacity and to follow your gut instincts.”

Dr Jarred Griffin is a Research Fellow at the University of Auckland’s School of Pharmacy, specialising in translational research to develop therapies for spinal cord injury. 

Tell us about your journey so far. Starting with your time in NZ, overseas and then now back in NZ.  

My journey starts back with my undergraduate science degree at the University of Auckland. I graduated with a degree in pharmacology, and from there, I continued with an Honors degree, looking at spinal cord injury here at the Centre for Brain Research. This introduced me to the world of regenerative neurobiology and spinal cord injury, and this fascinated me.

I then went on and completed my PhD investigating spinal cord injury, this time really focusing on developing a gene therapy approach to degrade components of the extracellular matrix, a manipulation that can enhance the regenerative capacity of injured neurons after a spinal cord injury. This work involved a lot of behavioural analysis into motor function recovery, and these results showed us that while this gene therapy was able to drive neuroplasticity towards improving functional connections, functionally, the improvement was modest. Subsequently, I employed the combination of hindlimb rehabilitation, which then led to more substantial functional recovery, implying that newly formed neuronal connections need to be instructed on how to function.

And then you moved overseas for a postdoctoral research job?

Yes, I then moved over to Bonn, Germany, to begin a postdoc. I met my soon-to-be postdoc supervisor, Professor Frank Bradke, while on a course during my PhD. I was really taken by his research. My postdoc in his lab was really an extension of my PhD, taking my previous behaviour analyses, rehabilitation and surgery skills and applying a lead therapeutic that Franks Lab had been working on. Similar to what was seen with my PhD work, this combination of hindlimb rehabilitation with the therapy was much more effective than either alone.

Now I've moved back to New Zealand. I'm quite happy to be back and to be home with my friends and family. I'm now in the process of starting my own lab at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Auckland. We will be working closely with the Centre for Brain Research. I am also looking for PhD students currently to help me continue my work on spinal cord injury. In this line of work, I am looking into developing a molecular tool in which we will be able to selectively visualise regenerative axons in vivo. It might sound surprising, but there is currently no way to make this differentiation, and so it becomes quite easy to misinterpret results from neuronal tracing studies. This work will involve a lot of molecular biology to create the constructs, neuronal cell culture, surgery, behaviour, tissue clearing and 3D light sheet imaging, and so I am hoping to get some students who are interested in learning these approaches to help with the research.

How have your research interests changed over that time?  

Really, my career has just been me following my interests. Firstly, I began my undergraduate degree just doing papers that interested me, which brought me to a degree in pharmacology. My PhD then pushed me to understand the inner workings of translational studies for spinal cord recovery. My postdoc was then a combination of pharmacology and behaviour, and really was a great summation of everything I had learned. I now want to push this even further with my own lab here in New Zealand. The overarching focus of my group will be to obtain translational success for the treatment of spinal cord injury. This is focused through multiple streams; Certainly, this is predominantly through the execution of rigorous, translational studies that directly inform clinical practice. Emphasis is placed on rehabilitation, where we are investigating how rehabilitation and activity-induced plasticity is interpreted in the context of preclinical models and in combination with therapeutic agents.

The project investigating neuronal plasticity is in efforts to make certain we know how much plasticity is occurring through certain treatments, so that we can be certain of efficacy. Understanding the degree and nature of neuroplasticity is essential for evaluating treatment efficacy and optimising rehabilitation strategies. This foundational knowledge will inform the development of targeted therapies that enhance functional recovery.

In addition to our laboratory-based efforts, we are actively engaged in initiating veterinary clinical research. We have established a platform to conduct trials in pet dogs that have sustained spinal cord injuries. These studies not only offer potential therapeutic benefits to the animals involved but also serve as a valuable model for human spinal cord injury. By enrolling companion animals whose owners are seeking experimental treatment options, we create a unique opportunity to evaluate promising candidates in a real-world setting that closely mirrors human clinical scenarios.

What advice would you give to young researchers just starting out in the field? 

One piece of advice would be to have tenacity and to follow your gut instincts. In science, you're going to get people who don't agree with you, and you've got to stick with your gut feeling. Of course, you have to prove that your idea is right by doing a rigorous experiment. Then, if your results are not what you expected, then acknowledge that and take people's criticism, but be confident in yourself.

Another thing I would say is to test the dogma. I think this is something that New Zealanders are great at, and was something I got told a lot during my time in Germany. Whether that be due to a different mindset or kiwi ingenuity, we seem to think of science in a different way. We didn't begin our careers in a research field where you get taught what to think, and so I guess, for a lot of academics that come through the New Zealand system, we've had to figure it out for ourselves. We also don't have a lot of funding for research, and this means we must think really critically about how we’re going to do our experiments. These are really strong qualities in a scientist, and we should be proud of them as Kiwis.

If people want to contact you, how should they do so? Do you have any social media profiles people can follow?  

I can be contacted through my email address: jarred.griffin@auckland.ac.nz. I’d be happy to hear from potential students who would like to talk about research project ideas or from other researchers who have an idea about a collaboration. My Auckland University profile can be found at https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/jarred-griffin. This is where you would be able to see my research theme, available projects and my publications.

Interview by Dr Lily Bentall (University of Otago)