Thread by @BSPparasitology

Here at @BSPparasitology, I will be live-tweeting today from the Veterinary Parasitology session at Appleton Hall 2 & from 11:30 am-13:00 PM, from the Protists 5 session: Genomics & Evolution at McEwan Hall! So I will retweet from parallel sessions! Beautiful #BSP2023 final day!

Beginning #BSP2023 Day 4 and opening our Veterinary Parasitology session today, is Dr Lynsey Melville (taking over from Fiona Kenyon) of @MoredunComms who is telling us about "Making #roundworm data ewe-niversal for all". #parasitology

Dr Melville of @MoredunComms tells us about her research in monitoring the development of anthelmintic resistance in the treatment of gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep, particularly focusing on Nematodirus battus resistance to benzimidazoles: sciencedirect.com/science/articl… #BSP2023

Dr Melville shows us novel data at #BSP2023 in which she studied the efficacy of 4 classes of anthelmintic drugs against a variety of #parasites of sheep (2 Trichostrongylus species, Teladorsagia circumcincta, Chaberta, & Oesophagostomum). Imperative to engage with farmers!

Wow! Dr Melville describes for us a new app developed at @MoredunComms called "FEC check" (FEC = faecal egg counts) that can assist with the interpretation of faecal egg count results! It's for farmers, vets, & advisors & find the info at moredun.org.uk/events/fec-che… #BSP2023

Talk 2 now during our Veterinary Parasitology session is from Nicole Henry of @QUBelfast who will tell us about "Integrating multi-species swards into #parasite management in sheep under climate change."
#BSP2023/#parasitology

Nicole Henry tells us now about her study on grazing sheep in Northern Ireland. A "sward" is simply a layer of soil covered in grass & so it is important to understand if changes to grass species for grazing have an effect on faecal egg, female worm length & abomasal worm counts!

Interesting results- there ARE differences in egg counts & abosamal worm counts between sheep grazed on swards of different grass species composition... but you'll have to wait for the results from Nicole Henry at @QUBelfast! A teaser of the lab's work at sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

And now for our 3rd #BSP2023 Veterinary Parasitology talk this morning: Wan Chen (@WanChen0902) of @UoABioSci/@MoredunComms who will tell us about "RNA interference: a functional tool for screening potential vaccine targets in the poultry red mite Dermanyssus gallinae."

Wan Chen tells us about a #parasite that many people don't know about but which causes the loss of hundreds of millions of £/€/$ per year for the poultry industry: Dermanyssus gallinae. Wan was involved in transcriptomic analysis of all life cycle stages: bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

Knock-down of genes in these red mites is possible using RNAi & is described by Wan in his paper at parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11… #BSP2023/#Parasitology

And now on to our 4th Veterinary Parasitology talk at #BSP2023 this morning: it's @nicholacalvani of @herminthology & she is discussing "Co-culture with HepG2 spheroids spurs in vitro growth and development of the infective stages of the helminth pathogen #Fasciola hepatica."

Dr Calvani shows us some unbelievable videos just taken in the last couple of weeks over at @MPL_UniOfGalway of her very happy Fasciola hepatia #parasites enjoying their HepG2 spheroid culture! Definitely follow @nicholacalvani & look out for this work in future! #BSP2023

Now for our final talk of this morning's #BSP2023 Veterinary Parasitology session: Rosemonde Power of @Sydney_Uni with "Exploration of the sensitivity to macrocyclic lactones in the canine heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) in Australia using phenotypic and genotypic approaches."

And to read about @rosemondepower's work at @Sydney_Uni, we are in luck because it has been published just last year at sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
#BSP2023/#heartworm/#dirofilaria/#parasitology

Now for our final #BSP2023 session in McEwan Hall: Protists 5: Genomics & Evolution! Our keynote speaker now is Dr Gérald Spaeth of @institutpasteur with "Darwin in a dish: Experimental Evolution reveals novel mechanisms of #Leishmania fitness gain."

Dr Spaeth tells us about the "LeiSHield" project, which you can read about at leishield.org & research.pasteur.fr/en/project/lei… Specifically, Dr Spaeth discusses experimental evolution in culture linking fitness gain to genome instability: pnas.org/doi/abs/10.107… #BSP2023

Dr Spaeth discusses the role of NIMA kinase in #leishmania viability & how examining gene read ratio between a NIMA KO & NIMA+ parasites led to insights into post-transcriptional regulation (in other organisms, even humans, NIMA KOs confer ciliopathy): pnas.org/doi/abs/10.107…

And so Dr Spaeth describes experimental evolution of #leishmania in the insect host, the sandfly (L. donovani used). In sandflies, karyotypic selection occurs, with Dr Spaeth showing specific chromosomes & somies over the course of infections: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn… #BSP2023

Following on from this, Dr Spaeth's lab is now examining the effects of experimental evolution on immunity to #leishmania infection in the livers and spleens of mice & hamsters (both WT and KOs)! Here's a quick image from the '23 paper in @PNASNews to summarise! #BSP2023

Now our 2nd talk, staying in #Leishmania, we have Dr Ulrich Dobramysl of @UniofOxford who is going to tell us about "Designing genome-scale strategies for knockout life cycle fitness phenotyping in LeishGEM." #BSP2023

The #Leishmania genetic modification project (LeishGEM; find at leishgem.org) attempts to create 2 pools of resources: 1 database/repository of bar-coded KOs (the "Deletion bar-seq" aim) & the leishtag.org repository of #leishmania lines with tagged proteins

As described at leishgem.org, this project will expand on previous bar-seq experiments that can be found at journals.plos.org/plospathogens/… (2019) & nature.com/articles/s4146… (2021). #BSP2023/#parasitology

Now for our 3rd talk of the #BSP2023 Protists 5 session: Dr Timothy Anderson of @txbiomed with "A central role for the amino acid transporter (AAT1) in Chloroquine resistance evolution in #Plasmodium falciparum." #malaria/#parasitology

Dr Anderson begins by telling us about the rebirth of genetic crosses of #Plasmodium falciparum. Having previously required chimpanzees (banned to use in the US since '14), it is now possible to use the liver-humanised mouse (FRG huHep) to create crosses: nature.com/articles/nmeth…

And these crosses have already led to insights into the evolution of resistance to chloroquine in #Plasmodium falciparum, which you can learn all about at sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Plus- @txbiomed is expanding in size and is hiring faculty! Check that out! #BSP2023

Our 4th talk of the #BSP2023 Protists 5 session is from our outgoing @BSPparasitology President, Dr Colin Sutherland of @LSHTM/@LSHTM_malaria, who tells us about "Emerging parasite resistance in Africa - are we about to see a resurgence in falciparum malaria across the continent?

Dr Sutherland shows us data from UK Malaria Reference Lab samples (housed at @LSHTM)- one patient from the UK with a recurring #Plasmodium falciparum infection (twice recurred!) & the cause being K13 mutations. While in Ghana: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… #BSP2023/#malaria

Huh?! The chloroquine resistant samples always have the opposite lumefantrine resistance profile! That is very interesting. I'll be keeping an eye on the Sutherland Lab at @LSHTM/@LSHTM_malaria for more updates on the mechanisms of that resistance! #BSP2023/#malaria/#Plasmodium

And a shoutout at the end to the UK Malaria Reference Lab scientists at @LSHTM/@LSHTM_malaria. Particularly Lindsay & Debbie who hadn't sent a photo & had one mocked up by Dr Sutherland anyway! #BSP2023

Now for our penultimate talk at #BSP2023 session Protists 5 with Dr Michael Hammond of the Biology Centre CAS in České Budějovice, who will tell us about "Comprehensive investigation of the #Trypanosoma brucei kinetoplast and the discovery of a slew of new protein constituents."

More to come on the #trypanosoma work from Dr Michael Hammond, so stay tuned! However, to stay on top of the story, you can find a great review from Dr Hammond et al. at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bi… from 2022! #BSP2023

And now to #Toxoplasma gondii during our final talk of our final day of #BSP2023! This talk is from Saniya Crouch, a PhD student at @WCIPGLASGOW & @MoredunComms who will tell us about "To Per-Cyst or Not: unravelling the secrets behind an attenuated Toxoplasma strain."

Make sure to follow @saniya_crouch so you can keep up with this work & hear when her data is published! And her supervisors at @SheinerLab & @GeordieParasit! Thank you for wrapping up #BSP2023, Saniya! #toxoplasma/#parasitology

Lots of "Thank You"s from @BSPparasitology & @LabSchnaufer to all of the organisers and volunteers who made #BSP2023 at @EdinburghUni an amazing event!!

#BSP2023 Poster Prize winners:

First Place: Aro Nugawela of @LancasterUni
Second Place: Noelle Thundathil of @UCalgary
Third Place: Sophia DonVito of @LSHTM

Congratulations to all our winners!

Here they are: #BSP2023 Poster Prize winners with their certificates and prize #Parasitology books!

1st Prize: @Aro_Nugawela
2nd Prize: Noelle Thundathil of @HPI_network
3rd Prize: @sophiadonvito

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