The Queen awards BCHC members

This week, several members of BCHC attended a ceremony in Buckingham Palace to receive the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for pioneering work in parasitology. Queen Camilla presented the award and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also praised the prize winners. The prestigious award recognises the work of scientists in the Department of Life Sciences here at Aberystwyth…

Exciting new international partnership for BCHC members  

Director of BCHC Prof. Karl Hoffmann has helped to establish a new international partnership; this collaboration involves several institutes around the world and aims to develop a vaccine for parasite diseases caused by helminths.   On the path to discover vaccines against hookworms and schistosomes researchers will explore new ways of identifying molecular targets and…

Functional Genomics Workshop in Brazil

During the last two weeks of September, BCHC member Prof Gabriel Rinaldi ran a workshop with colleagues in Brazil. The international online course aimed at presenting different functional genomic methodologies in parasites and their vectors, including interference RNA, CRISPR CAS knock-in and knock-out. The course focused on single-cell sequencing from the preparation to data analysis.…

DLS Festival of Research 2023

On Friday 15th September, the Department of Life Sciences (DLS) at Aberystwyth University held the first DLS Festival of Research. The event was a great success, providing an opportunity to share and celebrate the research taking place across the department. Several BCHC members took part, giving talks and presenting posters throughout the day. Talks included…

BCHC strengthens collaborations with Kingston University

On 31st July and 1st August, we welcomed Prof. Tony Walker from Kingston University to Aberystwyth. Tony gave a great seminar talk entitled ‘When parasitology meets cell biology: Mechanistic insights into the functional biology of schistosomes and the importance of host-parasite interplay’. While at Aberystwyth University Tony also met with several BCHC members to discuss…

Future collaborations with University of Perpignan

In April, BCHC member Dr Gabriel Rinaldi attended a meeting with collaborators at the University of Perpignan. At the university, they work on areas of Ecology and Neglected Tropical Diseases with a particular focus on different species of Schistosomes, including hybrids. The meeting was hosted by Prof Christoph Grunau, his team and Dr Ronaldo De…

BCHC Members Involved in OneZoo CDT Projects

The OneZoo CDT PhD projects for 2023-24 are now open for applications. Several of our BCHC members are involved with the projects. Dr Russ Morphew is supervising Novel environmental biomarkers for liver fluke control, with co-supervisors including Prof. Peter Brophy and Dr Rhys Jones. Dr Russ Morphew is also involved with other OneZoo CDT projects…

BCHC celebrates Viva success!

On 14th March, Pom Wititkornkul successfully defended her thesis: ‘Horsing around with Anoplocephala perfoliata: A Polyomic Investigation of the Host–Parasite Interface’ She was examined by Professor Cinzia Cantacessi from the University of Cambridge and Dr Iain Chalmers from Aberystwyth University. The viva was chaired by Professor Peter Brophy. Congratulations Dr Wititkornkul!

British Science Week at Aberystwyth University

This March members of the BCHC took part in British Science week hosted by Aberystwyth University. An annual UK wide celebration of science, technology, engineering and Maths, this year’s theme was Connections. Over the 3-day event pupils from local primary and secondary schools visited the Penglais campus for the opportunity to engage with a wide…

University of Glasgow – Advanced Research Centre Workshop 2023

On 1st and 2nd March, 2023, one of our BCHC members Dr Gabriel Rinaldi attended a workshop at the Advanced Research Centre (ARC), University of Glasgow, entitled “Challenges, opportunities, and new technologies for functional validation of parasitic nematode genes”. Several topics dealing with the application of cutting-edge technologies on the study of parasitic nematodes, agents…