Prof Emma Teeling, head of Zoology at UCD is my guest on the podcast this week. Emma talks about her fascinating research into bats and how uncovering the bat genome may unlock the secrets to health and longevity. Emma discusses how studying bats can impact human health by examining their mechanisms of ageing and inflammation, her field trips to Brittany in France and how bats have undeservedly become the scapegoats of COVID-19.

She also discusses growing up in an entrepreneurial household, how being a scientist is like being an elite Olympian and the curiosity that drives her very obvious passion for what she does.

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This season is kindly sponsored by Bio-Sciences Ltd

Brian Pennie is my guest on the podcast this week. He talks about growing up surrounded by drug and alcohol abuse, how this lead him down a road of chronic heroin addiction and crippling anxiety, how he overcame these issues and where he is today, a PhD researcher in the Trinity Institute of Neuroscience. Brian's research now focuses on using interventions such as mindfulness to combat substance misuse in adults.

We also chat about the importance of being bold in asking for advice, the importance of having balance in your life and how he views the world with a new 'spark' now. 

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This season is kindly sponsored by Bio-Sciences Ltd

Prof Laoise McNamara is my guest this week. She chats to me about her biomedical engineering research group in NUIG and her ongoing research in the field of mechanobiology . She also talks about her work on bone remodeling in the context of Osteoporosis and cancer metastasis.

We also chat about the importance of  effective science communication and encouraging equal gender balances in engineering and STEM. 

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This season is kindly sponsored by Bio-Sciences Ltd

Prof Marina Lynch, professor of cellular neuroscience in Trinity College Dublin is my guest this week. She chats to me about her research into neuroinflammation in Alzheimers disease, her findings on memory and coming up against criticism for going against the grain in her early days.

Marina also chats about her experience in boarding school, her passion for learning and her pet peeves of 'form filling' and academic admin.

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This season is kindly sponsored by Bio-Sciences Ltd

In this episode I chat to Dr Tom Flanagan about his research career merging the fields of tissue engineering and cardiovascular research. He talks to me about his research experience in Germany, his work on umbilical cord tissue (including his own sons tissue!!) and how this work could drastically improve the surgical landscape for infants with congenital heart defects. 

Tom also talks about his passion for teaching, how he could have been Galways answer to the next Marty Morrissey and how research is like 'being in a relationship'.

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This season is kindly sponsored by Bio-Sciences Ltd

Welcome back to Season 2 of Unravelling Science! 

In this episode I chat to Prof Christine Loscher about her research into immune health and nutrition in DCU. We discuss the impact of your immune status on overall health, how we can mine & harvest immunomodulatory agents from our food and what supermarkets may look like in the future. Christine also chats about the importance of mentors in academia and asking for help along the way. 

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This season is kindly sponsored by Bio-Sciences Ltd.

In this episode I chat to Trinity immunometabolism guru Dr Dave Finlay about his research into nutrients & metabolism, immune cell function and tumour microenvironment, particularly focused on Natural Killer and Dendritic cells. He also chats to me about his time in Dundee under the supervision of Prof Doreen Cantrell and the stressful 'lag period' between postdoc and PI. He also talks about his new found love of baking since stepping back from the lab!

This episode marks the end of Season 1. Season 2 of Unravelling Science will return in mid September 2020.

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In this episode I chat to Harvard researcher Dr Evanna Mills about her career to date in the field of immunometabolism, her experience as a PhD student under the supervision of Prof Luke O'Neill and her recent work on thermogenesis. She also discusses working on mouse models in the lab, what it was like growing up with two of Ireland's most prominent scientific researchers as parents and her feelings on coming back to Ireland in the future. 

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I chat to my supervisor Prof Ursula Fearon about her career in Rheumatology and the extremely translational research her lab conducts, constantly feeding back to the clinicians and patients. We chat about the benefits of studying interactions between cells in the joint and recent work on arthritis in children with Down Syndrome. Ursula also chats about the ups and downs of academia and how being a PI can often be similar to being a therapist. 

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In this episode I chat to UCD PhD researcher Sean Mooney about life in astrophysics and his research into plasma jets that are released from black holes in distant galaxies using the LOFAR radiotelescope. We also chat about life as a PhD student, stand up comedy and why hes probably not cut out to be an astronaut. 

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