BCHC establishes new collaborations with the University of Oxford

Last Month the BCHC welcomed Professor Stuart Conway from the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford for collaborative discussions. Professor Conway’s research focuses on the use of synthetic organic chemistry to enable the study of biological problems. Discussions focused around collaborations into the development of new anti-schistosomal agents. This proved to be a hugely productive…

When beheading isn’t the end…..

Yesterday the BCHC welcomed Professor Aziz Aboobaker to Aberystwyth University to speak with us about his work. Aziz is particularly interested in understanding how some animals are able to regenerate and the stem cells that underpin this process. His work uses the planarian flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea as a model system to investigate the process of…

BCHC sponsors Helminth Extracellular Vesicles Workshop

Helminth Extracellular Vesicles Workshop Bratsera Hotel, Hydra, Greece, 31 Aug – 01 Sep 2019 The BCHC has been delighted to sponsor the recent Helminth Extracellular Vesicles (EV) Workshop held in association with the Parasitic Helminth Conference on the beautiful island of Hydra in Greece. The two day workshop was attended by thirty researchers from around…

The BCHC meets the creator of the ‘Guardians of the Gut’

We were recently joined by Dr Lindsay Hall, the Microbiome group leader from the Institute of Food Research based at the Quadram Institute who presented a fascinating seminar on the establishment of the microbiota in newborn babies and the important role that this plays in an infant’s growth and development. In addition to her research…

BCHC welcomes PhD student as part of knowledge exchange

In early June the BCHC hosted a visit from Alice Costain. Alice is a 3rd year PhD student at the Leiden University Medical Center who is currently working in Andrew MacDonalds laboratories at Manchester University. Alice came to Aberystwyth to gain training in the handling of our infected snails and processing of parasitic worms. While…

BCHC hosts 3 annual Drug-Discovery Symposium

In early June the BCHC hosted the third annual drug discovery mini symposium. Our colleagues Professor Andrew Westwell, Professor Andrea Brancale, Dr Salvatore Ferla, Dr Marcella Bassetto and Miss Alessandra Crusco from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University and Dr Robert Nash from local biotechnology company Phytoquest again joined us to…

The BCHC deals with difficult datasets

In early May The BCHC welcomed Dr Matt Denwood, an Associate Professor in Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Copenhagen. Dr Denwood delivered a very interesting seminar in the development statistical methods that can be used for analysis of difficult data sets such as those commonly found within parasitology. Dr Denwood also…

Aberystwyth and Swansea Universities strengthen relations

At the end of March, the BCHC welcomed Professor Cathy Thornton from Swansea University along with members of her team for a one-day meeting focused on building collaborative relations between the two universities. This visit was hosted by Prof Karl Hoffmann and Dr Russ Morphew and discussions focused around knowledge exchange in EV-related biology and…

BCHC members present at British Society for Parasitology spring meeting

This April researchers from the BCHC travelled to Manchester to take part in the British Society for Parasitology spring meeting. This year’s meeting was held in partnership with the Belgian Society of Parasitology and Protistology (BSPP) and the Dutch Society for Parasitology (NVP). Keynote speakers included Prof Joanne Webster (Royal Veterinary College) and Prof Patricia Wright…

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…