Mind and Microbes: talks on anxiety and viral evolution

The Royal Society Te Apārangi and its Nelson Branch are proud to present talks by two inspiring scientists who have recently won Prime Minister’s Science Prizes. This will be an evening of compelling science, fresh ideas, and powerful storytelling as Professor Jemma Geoghegan and Dr Olivia Harrison share insights about their research.

Dr Olivia Harrison won the 2024 Prime Minister’s MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize for her multidisciplinary approach to understanding and managing anxiety.

Anxiety is a very common mental health condition globally and in New Zealand. It can become incredibly debilitating and destructive. Many of the symptoms of anxiety are perceived as physical sensations in the body (e.g. a racing heart or shortness of breath), and Dr Harrison has studied how misinterpretation of signals between the brain and body can exacerbate the symptoms of anxiety. Olivia and her team use techniques from neuroscience, psychology, physiology, exercise science, and computational modelling to better understand this breakdown in communication. They are also evaluating the effectiveness of medication and exercise in different individuals, with the aim of identifying biomarkers and developing personalised strategies that will help each individual to ‘tune in’ to their symptoms and find ways to manage their anxiety.

Professor Jemma Geoghegan won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize for promoting public understanding of infectious diseases and advising a range of decision-makers on how to respond to pandemic threats in New Zealand and throughout the Pacific.

Isolated for over 84 million years, Aotearoa’s unique mix of native and invasive species offers an exceptional opportunity to study viral evolution. By sampling viruses from a range of hosts – including birds, fish, reptiles, and mammals – virologists like Professor Geoghegan investigate how viruses evolve, how host ecology influences viral dynamics, and what drives host-jumping over time. Through her research, Jemma aims to uncover unknown viruses, identify potential disease threats, and understand the ecological and genetic forces which shape the virome.

Biographies

Dr Olivia Harrison is a Rutherford Discovery Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago. She completed a double degree in Neuroscience and Exercise Physiology at Otago, and a DPhil in Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. She was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in Switzerland for nearly 3 years, before moving back to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2021.

Professor Jemma Geoghegan is the Robert Webster Chair in Viral Pathogenesis at the University of Otago in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She completed her postdoctoral research in the United States of America and Australia, and returned to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2020 as a Rutherford Discovery Fellow. Professor Geoghegan is an evolutionary virologist with a focus on emerging infectious diseases, and on determining the fundamental patterns and processes of viral evolution, ecology, and emergence. Her research uses metagenomics to reveal the diversity, structure and evolution of the virosphere. She won the 2021 Prime Minister's Emerging Scientist Prize.

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