BCHC News – Page 7 – Barrett Centre for Helminth Control

Aberystwyth University strengthens links with Dundee Drug Discovery Unit

At the end of January, members of the BCHC travelled to Dundee to meet with Ian Gilbert, Beatriz Baragana and their team at the Drug Discovery Unit at Dundee University. The one-day symposium brought together chemists and data-analysts from the Drug Discovery Unit at Dundee University with Parasitologists from Aberystwyth University. The aim of this…

Aberystwyth University features in new Life Sciences Research Network Wales video

The Life Sciences Research Network Wales (LSRNW) is a cross-Wales initiative that supports World Class Science within Wales to develop new therapeutic treatments in areas of unmet medical and veterinary need. The Network is led by Cardiff University and brings together research expertise in the Life Sciences from across Wales including from Aberystwyth, Bangor and Swansea Universities. The Network forms…

BCHC Access Fellowship leads to new diagnostic test for parasitic infection in fish

Scientists from Swansea University, Aberystwyth University and Cardiff University have collaborated to develop a method to identify potential chemical cues associated with parasitic infection in fish. The collaborative team investigated chemical cues, in the form of proteins and peptides, released from the mangrove killifish, Kryptolebias marmoratus, in response to parasitic infection with the common fish…

BCHC features in Advances Wales

The Barrett Centre for Helminth Control is featured in the Winter 2018 issue of ‘Advances Wales’, A quarterly publication that showcases the latest news, research, and developments in Science, Technology and Engineering in Wales. The article focuses on collaborative research conducted in conjunction with both Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Welsh…

Christmas trees aid the fight against Fasciolisis and Schistosomiasis

Scientists from Aberystwyth University, Ridgeway Research Ltd. and Phytoquest Ltd. have contributed to research that identifies a novel chemical compound from the bark of Noble fir trees and demonstrates that this compound has anthelmintic activity against two evolutionary related parasite species, the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica and the blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni. Fasciolosis (caused by…

BCHC engages with local students

As part of a programme of lectures organised by the West Wales Association of Young Scientists (WWAYS) our very own BCHC Director, Prof Karl Hoffmann took to the stage this week to present a lecture on his career path and how parasites and Schistosomes in particular, became the focus of his work. Prof. Hoffmann delivered…

BCHC student wins award for PhD presentation at the 5th Annual Scientific Drug Discovery Congress

Aberystwyth PhD student, David Cutress, has won one of two awards presented on the first day of the Annual Scientific Drug Discovery Congress held in Cardiff earlier this month. His talk, entitled ‘Towards validation of an immune suppressor protein from liver fluke as a drug target’, detailed the advances he has made to date in trying…

Aberystwyth hosts second drug discovery meeting

In mid-July, the BCHC hosted a second drug discovery mini symposium. Again, our colleagues Professor Andrew Westwell, Professor Andrea Brancale and Dr Salvatore Ferla travelled up from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University to listen to presentations delivered by staff and postgraduate students of the Hoffmann laboratory. With plenty of time…

Taking Schistosomes to the stage

At the end of May, BCHC members from the Hoffmann lab travelled to Builth Wells to deliver interactive science experiments to children of all ages competing at one of Europe’s largest cultural youth festivals, the Urdd National Eisteddfod. We took our custom made ‘plush parasites’ along to explain the Schistosome life-cycle and encouraged members of…

BCHC strengthens links in India

The BCHC has been delighted to welcome Dr P. A. Ahammed Shareef from the Department of Zoology at PMSO College, Kerala, India as a visiting Fellow during April and May. Shareef has previously visited Aberystwyth in 2013 as part of a BBSRC funded research project tackling Fasciolaisis in the UK and India working with both…

BCHC News (page 7)