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The mission of the BSP is to advance the study of parasitology, aid communication within the community and promote dissemination of advances in the field

Apr 13, 2023, 40 tweets

Day 3 of #BSP2023 begins today with our @SPPIRITnetwork ECR session! SPPIRIT is an excellent ECR organisation for parasitologists working in Scotland, but all ECRs will benefit from the expertise today in publishing & attracting funding! #parasitology

Here are the talks for today's @SPPIRITnetwork ECR session at #BSP2023! A big thanks to @CambridgeUP who are here in person as sponsors (so visit their table!). They are publishers of the journal "Parasitology" & an original sponsor of the BSP! cambridge.org/core/journals/…

Our 1st talk at the #BSP2023 ECR session with @SPPIRITnetwork is from @StothardRuss, Parasitology Editor-In-Chief with tips on getting your manuscript 'in press'! There is also a webinar available with tips from @CambridgeUP at #parasitology

Alison Paskins of @JnlParasitology and @JHelminthology gives the #BSP2023 ECR session information on #openaccess, creative commons licensing, #altmetrics (get blogging & tweeting about your research/publications!), discretionary fee waivers, & Parasitology's ECR award!

And now from the #BSP2023 ECRs themselves! John Archer (@LSTMnews PhD student) & Dr Amy Ibrahim (@LSHTM/@LSHTM_malaria Research Fellow) tell the @SPPIRITnetwork session attendees about their own experiences with academic publishing. A big take-away: it takes TIME! #Parasitology

Now to the #BSP2023 ECR session talks about funding/writing grants with Dr Ally Hughes, who is the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (@SULSAtweets) Project Manager (sulsa.ac.uk). Good point: remember that grant reviewers may not be experts in your area!

Now @AnnamariaC of Inter-Change Research (inter-changeresearch.com), who will also speak at our Equality & Diversity session later today, discusses "Integration, collaboration, inter-disciplinarity" in science, e.g., do you want to collaborate to develop new technology? #BSP2023

And now Charis Wilson of @EdinburghUni Central Research Office gives some excellent advice on ECR opportunities at our @SPPIRITnetwork #BSP2023 ECR session! Your institutes/universities will almost always have staff that assist with grant applications (incl. costings/budgeting)!

And now for our 3rd Plenary session at #BSP2023 which will be given by Prof De'Broski Herbert (@DHerbertLab) of @Penn with "Hookworms dynamically respond to Type 2 immune pressure". #hookworm/#parasitology

Prof Herbert is discussing some new #hookworm research (so keep an eye on @DHerbertLab for more to come!) investigating both gastrointestinal immunity/host adaptation to N. brasiliensis & cutaneous host immunity to STH invasion. Fantastic review at annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/an…

Prof Herbert shows novel data which maps immune cell populations during primary and secondary cutaneous infections of mice with a soil transmitted #helminth. This research was led by PhD student Juan Inclan-Rico, so look out for his upcoming publications! drherbertlab.org

Our 4th Plenary session at #BSP2023 now moves to #parasite ecology with Prof Vanessa Ezenwa of @Yale with her talk on "Anthelmintic treatment dampens immunosenescence in a wild mammal with consequences for survival." #parasitology/#ecology

Prof Ezenwa introduces us to "immunosenescence", aka "inflammaging", i.e. immunological changes occuring as a result of aging, & discusses the potential effect of inflammaging in responses to infections e.g COVID-19 (frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…) or parasites (elifesciences.org/articles/65180)

Prof Ezenwa now discusses her work in examining immune traits over time in African buffalo infected with gastrointestinal #helminths. Does senescence correlate among immune traits (eosinophils, platelets, monocytes, etc.)? A recent study using this model: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

Prof Ezenwa investigates covariance between immune traits & their combined or independent effects on survival of the host after #helminth infection with or without anthelmintic treatment. Do helminths affect immunosenescence in chronic infection? Look out for the publication!

The #BSP2023 Public Engagement session with @WCIPGLASGOW & @ReeceLab is up the winding staircase & through the door! Hannah Bialic & Petra Schneider are teaching us all about science writing, science festivals, teacher training, @pintofscience, @STEMAmbassadors, evaluation,& more

The @WCIPGLASGOW has a great list of resources at gla.ac.uk/research/az/wc…. If you would like the #parasite comics or would like WCIP people at your science event/festival, you can contact Hannah at Hannah.Bialic@glasgow.ac.uk
#BSP2023/#publicengagement/#scicomm/#parasitology

And for the @ReeceLab resources on Public Engagement, you can find the modules & feedback at thereecelab.com/public-engagem… & @pschneiderEDIN mentioned that there is support for people doing outreach & want to EVALUATE the impact at evaluationsupportscotland.org.uk
#scicomm/#BSP2023/#parasites

And now we have our #BSP2023 Equality & Diversity session. Our 1st talk is from Jo O'Leary, Head of EDI at @UKRI_News, a UK funder that invests >£8 billion each year, with "Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at UKRI: research and innovation by everyone, for everyone."

Just last month, @UKRI_News published it's first Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion (EDI) strategy which can be read in full at: ukri.org/publications/u…
The 2022-'25 action plans for the separate councils (such as @BBSRC) can be found at bit.ly/3MH5FKm
#BSP2023

The @UKRI_News EDI strategy is evidence-based & there are avenues to prevent any harm, harassment, or bullying & report it (ukri.org/what-we-offer/…). @JoOLeary now tells us that still, 57% of PI awards are to white males! Women recieved 28% of PI awards only! #BSP2023

For @UKRI_News awards in funding; all of the data and stats for EDI are available at ukri.org/publications/d…, but here is just one striking chart for the '20-21 year! #BSP2023

And our 2nd talk is from Prof Karen Halliday of @EdinburghUni who is telling us about "Systematic Inclusion", and showing us what she hopes is "provocative" data- the "leaky pipeline" in academia relating to women, black, & ethnic minority scientists. #BSP2023

Just 2 of the slides from Prof Halliday in our #BSP2023 Equality & Diversity session. These data relate to @EdinburghUni but is a reflection of all UK institutions currently: the loss of female students from undergrad to postgrad level, & BME (black/minority ethnic) students.

We now have our 3rd #BSP2023 Equality & Diversity talk before a panel session with the speakers: Annamaria Carusi (@AnnamariaC) of Inter-Change Research, doing research with @wellcometrust on "Race and Gender in Science."

Dr Carusi starts with an historical perspective: the "father of modern taxonomy", Carl Linnaeus; did you know that he also classified humans? (linnean.org/learning/who-w…). Dr Carusi suggests a number of reads, including Stephen J Gould's "Mismeasure of Man" & tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Before our panel, we have already had a number of questions & comments, one addressing the data which has so far been divided into "women and men" categories & needs to be expanded to include non-binary people. Another issue is non-disclosure when it comes to disabilty. #BSP2023

There is never enough time to discuss the issues raised during our #BSP2023 Equality & Diversity sessions but if you would like to run a session; our speakers today have been:
@JoOLeary of @UKRI_News
@AnnamariaC of Inter-Change Research
@RunsOnAir of @EdinburghUni

Now for our #BSP2023 President's Medal winner: Dr Maciej Grzybek (@GrzybekMaciej) of the Medical University of Gdańsk, with his talk on "Biomonitoring and long-term studies on sylvatic rodents in Poland – the good, the bad and the effort." #parasitology

Dr Grzybek joined the BSP himself in 2011 as an MRes student, and since that time has completed a PhD in Vet. Sciences ('16) & a Doctorate of Science in Medical Sciences ('20) alongside his 40+ publications! Incredible achievements in #parasitology as an ECR! #BSP2023

Dr Grzybek (@GrzybekMaciej) describes his work to us in zoonotic parasites & viruses of European rodents, including 3 vole species & 3 mouse species, even examining whether European rodents could spread COVID-19 (they are not spreaders!): biorxiv.org/content/10.110… #BSP2023

Incredible wealth of data shown by Dr Grzybek stemming from his PolVole study & others, with data on #parasites such as mesocestoides (parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…), toxoplasma (preprints.org/manuscript/202…), toxocara (nature.com/articles/s4159…), trichinella (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…) & more!

Now for our #BSP2023 C.A Wright Memorial Medal talk, awarded to Dr Susan Wyllie of @dundeeuni/@DDU_Dundee with "Supporting NTD drug discovery through comprehensive mechanism of action studies and Tales from the world’s longest postdoc!". #parasitology

Dr Susan Wyllie's (@LabWyllie) research at @DDU_Dundee/@WCAIRDundee has led to identification of drug targets for a number of parasitic diseases, including 4 clinical candidates, in addition to identifying the mode of action (MoA) of 40 compound series! modeofactiondundee.org/research/

Dr Wyllie describes the methods used in her lab (@LabWyllie) to identify the mode of action of compounds, including taking advantage of RNAi screens in #trypanosomes (great review at cell.com/trends/parasit…) & the chemical pulldown workflow used (antimalarial method shown).

Great descriptions of methodologies at the @LabWyllie website: modeofactiondundee.org/research/ & some great published descriptions such as:
- Identifying antimalarial targets: sciencedirect.com/science/articl… + researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4668…
- Anti-leishmanial candidate: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

And work continues now into identifying anti-cryptosporidial drugs at @DDU_Dundee in collaboration with Dr Mattie Pawlowic (@goldenpipette), alongside continued work into targeting kinetoplastids, with a promising drug just described in 2021 at sciencedirect.com/science/articl…! #BSP2023

And now for a quick #BSP2023 AGM before Poster session B! #parasitology
With special thanks to our outgoing President, Prof Colin Sutherland of @LSHTM_malaria & our outgoing secretary Dr Kevin Tyler (@KevinMTyler) of @uniofeastanglia!

And 2 new BSP Honorary Members announced: Prof Mark Carrington of @Cambridge_Uni & Prof Michael Miles of @LSHTM! #BSP2023

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