The fusion frontier

Professor Massimo Hilliard and Dr Ramon Martinez-Marmol grew up far from Queensland – Massimo in Naples, Italy, and Ramon in Catalonia, Spain. Their passion for biology led them both overseas as postdoctoral researchers: Massimo to the United States, and then Ramon to Australia. In 2015, they met at UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute, where Ramon joined the Meunier lab before moving to the Hilliard lab in 2020 as a Research Fellow. Together, they have been extending the limits of what is known or expected about neuronal fusion. In this fascinating conversation, Massimo and Ramon explore: What happens when neurons fuse How viral infections, like Covid-19, can induce fusion, disrupting neural circuits The surprising role of a tiny, transparent roundworm, C.elegans, in advancing their research How the lab’s discoveries of critical molecular players, like fusogens, may one day revolutionise nerve injury repair Advice for early-career researchers pursuing discovery science Related resources SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral fusogens cause neuronal and glial fusion that compromises neuronal activity EFF-1-mediated regenerative axonal fusion requires components of the apoptotic pathway Fusogen-mediated neuron−neuron fusion disrupts neural circuit connectivity and alters animal behavior

You can listen to The fusion frontier online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The fusion frontier is an episode from A Grey Matter by Queensland Brain Institute.

This episode is 30:06 long.

This episode was published on Nov 10, 2025.

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