The slimy to the weird, science of the sea and humans!

Golden kelp forests in Port Phillip Bay are declining due to environmental stressors. This talk will reveal the restoration project that is a multi-agency collaboration to trial growing juvenile kelp for out-planting in degraded areas. This work supports ecosystem recovery, biodiversity, and long-term resilience, ensuring future kelp populations thrive in changing conditions.

Your DNA holds powerful medical insights—but who controls it? Genomics is transforming healthcare, but with great power comes great ethical dilemmas. Should doctors sequence a newborn’s genome? Can your data be used without your consent? And what if a test reveals something you weren’t ready to know?

Synapses are the vital connections between neurons that enable communication across the nervous system. When these connections are lost or damaged, it can contribute to various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. These mechanisms remain complex and not fully understood.
Rabies virus has a unique ability to spread through the nervous system by crossing these synaptic junctions. Steph’s lab has found that a protein from a neuroinvasive strain of rabies can prevent axonal degeneration and enhance synapse formation.
Her research focuses on leveraging this viral protein to uncover the molecular processes involved in synapse formation.