Palm oil is a ubiquitous ingredient in many of the products we use every day, but its production comes at the expense of the environment and local communities. In this episode, we speak with Macquarie University PhD candidate Tom Collier who researches how synthetic biology can be used to produce sustainable palm oil that is both environmentally and socially responsible.

Being immersed in nature has always been a tonic, but why is that so? Chelle Roberts is a 3rd year PhD candidate at the School of Psychology UNSW. In this episode, we learn how the fractal patterns composing natural scenes have beneficial effects for the mind.

You can follow more of Chelle's work on twitter: @chelle__roberts

And a recent paper here: https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2778844

In this episode, we talk with PhD candidate Siân Perry about her research on how climate change, gender and race intersect through her analysis of 20 years of United States climate change discourse.

Apologies for my noisy neighbours in the background

Headache disorders affect millions of people worldwide and are a massive societal burden. Medical doctor and PhD candidate Faraidoon is a passionate researcher interested in understanding the mechanisms behind and the treatments for these debilitating conditions.

Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation are important for control of gene expression, however, the patterns of methylation across distant and closely related species are currently unknown. In this episode we speak with Allegra Angeloni a 3rd year PhD student at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research who is working to understand DNA methylation in vertebrate and invertebrate evolution and its contributions to health and disease.

Renewable energy technologies are critical for avoiding climate catastrophe and building a sustainable future. Dr Anastasia Soeriyadi is a record breaking Post doctoral researcher at UNSW's School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering who develops solar cells. In this episode we discuss how a solar cells works and how researchers are improving the amount of electricity they can generate as a way to solve many of the worlds problems.

Paleovirology is an emerging field which seeks to understand why ancient viruses have inserted fragments of themselves into the genomes of many different species. Emma Harding is a UNSW PhD candidate who is researching these viral fossils to improve the conservation of Australian marsupials such as the Koala and Tasmanian devil.

Literature links:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7172163

https://academic.oup.com/ve/article/7/2/veab076/6362200

In our second episode we interview co-host Lachlan Gray about his PhD project on the sex bias of autoimmune disease and his interests in computational biology.

In our second episode we interview co-host Felix about his research experiences during Honours and PhD. Felix discusses how our understanding of cellular plasticity in cancer will have applications for future diagnosis and treatment. If you have a question or would like to be interviewed in a future episode, please get in touch! Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ResBytesPodcast

In our first episode with ResearchBytes host Imtiaz, we discuss the influence of the microbiome on an individuals ability to build skeletal muscle. If you have a question or would like to be interviewed, please get in touch! Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ResBytesPodcast