Professor Greg Neely says pain is a good thing.

This might worry you when you find out he’s studying some of the deadliest snakes on the planet, but it’s all about trying to understand pain as a mechanism – and Greg’s long-term goal is to address chronic pain, which afflicts more than one billion people.

After studying infectious disease at the start of his career, Greg’s been obsessed with pain as the body’s first immune response, but pain is poorly understood. So, he’s seeking out animals that cause severe pain with their venoms to learn how our bodies respond.

Along the way, he’s also finding cheap and accessible solutions to snake bites, and investigating old potatoes...

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The Solutionists is a podcast from the University of Sydney, produced by Deadset Studios. Keep up to date with The Solutionists by following @sydney_uni on Facebook and Instagram, and @sydney.edu.au on Bluesky.

This episode was produced by Liam Riordan with sound design by Jeremy Wilmot. Supervising producer is Sarah Dabro. Executive editors are Kellie Riordan, Sladjana Rstic, and Mark Scott. Strategist is Ann Chesterman.

This podcast was recorded on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. For thousands of years, across innumerable generations, knowledge has been taught, shared and exchanged here. We pay respect to elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.