This week, members of the BCHC participated in British Science Week, an engagement event delivering practical STEM demonstrations to local school children in years 5 – 7. This year’s theme was ‘Change and Adapt’; you can learn more about the principles of British Science Week through their website. This year, BCHC’s stall incorporated a ‘World…
World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day 2025
Today is World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, an opportunity to highlight the work being done to beat NTDs. As part of Aberystwyth University, members of the BCHC have been collaborating on world-leading research as part of the WORMVACS2.0 project, which seeks to better define immunity against worm infections and set up a helminth vaccine development pipeline. …
BCHC welcomes visiting scientist Dr. Moses Egesa
Over the past two weeks, members of the Hoffmann research lab have welcomed Dr. Moses Egesa for two weeks of intensive training. Dr. Egesa is a research fellow with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), a Senior Research Officer at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and a Senior Scientist at both…
Miniature Worlds symposium 2024
On the 8th of November, members of the Hoffmann and Rinaldi research labs attended the Miniature Worlds symposium at Cambridge University, where pioneering organoid research for parasitology was presented and discussed. Delegates heard from experts on a range of developing in-vitro culture systems for parasites such as whipworm, liver fluke and cryptosporidium. Attendees were extremely…
Viva Success for Dr. Sarah Davey
Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Davey who successfully defended her thesis “Repositioning histone modification inhibitors as next generation flukicides” on the 6th November 2024. The viva was examined by Professor John Dalton from the University of Galway and Dr. Debbie Nash from Aberystwyth University, with Dr. Martin Swain as chair. Sarah said “Many thanks to Prof.…
DLS Festival of Research 2024
On Friday 13th September, the Department of Life Sciences at Aberystwyth University held the second DLS Festival of Research. After last years success, staff and students were pleased to welcome back the event. This year, there were posters and presentations from across the research groups with a strong ECR presence. Talks included: Dr. Josephine Forde-Thomas “Leveraging…
BCHC members attend The Hydra Helminth Conference 2024
This September, BCHC members Prof. Karl Hoffmann and Dr. Jo Forde-Thomas attended The Hydra Helminth Conference in Greece. This Conference focuses on Helminths and helps to drive forward this fast-moving field of parasitology. The keynote speaker this year was Prof. Alex Loukas from James Cook University, Australia. Prof. Karl Hoffmann gave his talk on ‘Development…
FoodBiosystems DTP Summer School 2024
In July this year FoodBioSystems DTP held a Summer School at University of Reading. This event gave students a chance to network, share research and develop new transferable skills at the workshops. Everyone had an opportunity to present their ongoing research in a friendly constructive atmosphere. Corey Steele presented her poster on ‘Ruminating over Host-Parasite…
BCHC collaborates with TULIP Graduate School, Perpignan
This month, Professor Karl Hoffmann participated in the ‘Functional Biology and Ecology’ Master’s Degree in Perpignan, France. There, as part of the TULIP Graduate School, Prof. Hoffmann delivered a lecture to students on neglected tropical diseases and drug discovery. He also had the opportunity to meet with staff conducting research on schistosome/host interactions and how…
Pursing the next phases of exciting work
In April, members from the BCHC visited collaborators within the University of Dundee’s Drug Discovery Unit and the School of Life Sciences to discuss our annual progress on schistosome drug discovery. This work, funded by the Wellcome Trust, has contributed to new methods for characterising how schistosomes respond to drugs and led to the identification…