In May, a BCHC PhD Student, Ben Hulme travelled to the USA as part in a knowledge exchange with Professor Paul Brindley’s laboratory at George Washington University, USA. Ben spent time learning how to optimise a new functional genomics technique, CRISPR-CAS9, which has never been performed in adult S. mansoni worms before. Preliminary findings looked promising and subsequent CRISPR-CAS9 experiments will be performed in tandem at Aberystwyth University and George Washington University. This opens up a new and exciting area of schistosome research to help characterise potentially important functional genes which will aid in novel drug development.
