Belinda Smith

speaker

2,605 appearances 27 recordings 4 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 3d ago

Belinda Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 27 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 6.

Appearances

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The Science Show · Getting more from fertiliser, viral DNA's vital role and help from hookworms! · 17 Apr 2026 podcast

These guys are part of our biome.

We all appreciate our microbiome and the importance of it.

This is the macro biome, the part of our biome you can see with the naked eye.

And worms have so intimately co-evolved with humans that our immune system has developed an entire arm that's in response to worms.

And humans now in Australia, you know, we don't experience worms like we did 100 years ago or 150 years ago.

So our immune system expects these signals.

We've evolved to expect these signals from the worms when we first emerge.

And the truth is, in developed countries, we don't get that anymore.

And so our immune systems are not primed to expect these little guys to be on board.

So you can think of them now as being overly hyperactive and looking to respond to things they shouldn't respond to, like dog dander.

food allergies, you know, egg proteins.

So all of these diseases, we've referred to them as diseases of modernity, are things, these autoimmune conditions and many other diseases that are driven by an inappropriate immune response.

Many of those diseases now can be wound back or wound down.

The inflammation can be toned down with worm infections.

With worm infections or perhaps if you create an industry that extracts the active ingredient, you could treat them.

Exactly.

And we have indeed formed a biotechnology company that is doing exactly that.

And where is it based?

It's based right here in Cairns.

Oh, really?

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