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Dr Andrew Bagshaw’s final research paper has been published with the work Bagshaw was undertaking while still at the University of Otago in Christchurch, before he left New Zealand to volunteer as an aid worker in Ukraine last January.
Weeks after Dr Andrew Bagshaw died volunteering in Ukraine, his final research project is being hailed as a breakthrough in DNA research and a “lasting legacy”.
Before, 47-year-old Bagshaw left to volunteer as an aid worker, he was a geneticist who worked as a researcher for the University of Otago’s Department of Anatomy in Christchurch.
He was studying how DNA sequences bend and change in ways that could benefit human health in the future.
Bagshaw’s PhD supervisor, Professor Neil Gemmell supervised Bagshaw and his paper before it was published in the journal “Nucleic Acids Research” this month.
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“Andrew’s remarkable work could lead to a better understanding of how genetic diseases arise and how they can be treated. It also opens up new avenues for research into the mechanics of DNA and could ultimately lead to the development of new technologies for manipulating DNA,” Gemmell said.
The research Bagshaw produced revealed that DNA was bending in a way nobody had known before.
His research reflected someone who was “exceptionably talented” and able to produce information that addressed how DNA bends and changes “in a new and innovative way.”
Gemmell said Bagshaw’s last discovery was important for spanning the fields of genetics, biochemistry and biophysics and had the potential to benefit human health in future years.
Bagshaw’s paper revealed that DNA sequences bend more in places that are rich in the two bases that makeup DNA. The findings helped to establish how DNA functions, how it changes over time, how it folds and how it is packaged into cells.
Martin Kennedy/Stuff
The late Dr Andrew Bagshaw during his time at the University of Otago in Christchurch.
While in Ukraine volunteering as an aid worker, Bagshaw was attempting to rescue an elderly woman from Soledar, an area of intense military action, when his car was hit by an artillery shell and he died.
“Andrew possessed extremely strong analytical skills and was easily one of the most extraordinary students I have trained. This, his final body of work, is a lasting legacy to a scientist of immense promise and ability,” said Gemmell.