Looking beyond lockdown: PhD student, Comzit Opachaloemphan Artwork

Research 2030

Connect to insights and perspectives from those leading change across the globe. When we launched the Research 2030 series early in 2020, our goal was to share voices and perspectives from an ever-changing global research community. Little did we know how quickly change would come with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic or the new challenges research and academic communities would be asked to tackle, from global collaboration to fight a virus to individual battles of living under lockdown. As we push forward into this new era, the need to share and connect with each other grows. Although this podcast is no substitute for a serendipitous meeting in a conference corridor, we hope it offers a chance to connect to insights and perspectives from those leading change across the globe. Join us on Research 2030, as we explore the importance of societal impact and the role of the UN Sustainable Development Goals on research, examine the impact of university rankings, delve into the growing potential of university-industry collaboration, and navigate a changing research culture. Sign up to Research 2030 through or your favorite podcast provider and so you will know whenever a new episode is released.

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Research 2030

Looking beyond lockdown: PhD student, Comzit Opachaloemphan

June 23, 2020 • Elsevier • Season 1 • Episode 7

Giacomo Mancini continues to explore research life under lockdown, this time from the perspective of New York University School of Medicine and international PhD student, Comzit Opachaloemphan. Together they discuss topics ranging from how the pandemic may impact the completion of Comzit’s PhD to the benefits new online courses provide. For Comzit, although his bench research is temporarily paused, he is not. He pushes forward, looking toward new opportunities to grow and strengthen him for the future.

About Comzit Opachaloemphan:
Comzit Opachaloemphan is an international PhD student from Thailand, where he earned his undergraduate’s degree in Biology. He is currently conducting his PhD study in the lab of Dr. Danny Reinberg in New York University School of Medicine. His research mainly focuses on the Ant epigenetics & rejuvenation. A social hierarchy in most ants is rigid and immutable but in the Indian jumping ant, the caste system is extremely flexible and reversible. An adult ant worker with a short lifespan can differentiate into the reproductive pseudo-queen and gain up to a 5X increase in lifespan. This transition is unique and contradicts the aging dogma in most other animals, which exhibits a trade-off between lifespan and reproduction. His research goal is to find a key to the remarkable aging plasticity.