Dr. Tara Walker is a Senior Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute, where her pioneering research explores the mechanisms of adult neurogenesis—how new neurons are generated in the adult hippocampus. Trained originally in plant biotechnology, she transitioned to neuroscience and earned a Marie Curie Fellowship before returning to lead research into how exercise, selenium, and platelet-derived signals like PF4 orchestrate neural stem cell growth, protect against ferroptosis, and restore cognitive function in aging and brain injury. Her work aims to translate fundamental findings into interventions for stroke, Alzheimer’s, and age-related cognitive decline.