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Asked by Freya <3 to Claire, Linda on 13 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by Pixie.
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Claire Bourke answered on 13 Jun 2016:
I work mainly with parasitic worms and my favourite is a species called Schistosoma (that’s the Latin name, but people mainly call them schistosomes or bilharzia). Schistosomes are amazing! The adult worms are perfectly adapted to live in the blood stream, but they start off as a larvae that lives inside a snail and can then burrow through human skin to start off an infection. I spent a lot of time looking at these larvae under a microscope and catching them as they were released from their snail hosts so that I could work out how they were so good at infecting through the skin. Schistosomes are especially interesting because in many parts of the world people become infected with them because they rely on water sources like rivers and streams where snails infected with schistosomes live; by understanding more about the amazing biology of schistosomes we hope to find better ways of protecting people from getting infected.
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Linda Anagu answered on 14 Jun 2016:
@Freya and Pixie, I work with a malaria parasite, called Plasmodium species scientifically (this is also he Latin name). There are five species of plasmodium that cause malaria in humans, ut I work specifically with the deadliest of them all called Plasmodium falciparum in Latin. It is a cunning parasite that have always found ways to survive its environment. P. falciparum is found mainly in the tropics (ie, mainly sub-Saharan Africa) because his parasite can only survive in the hotter tropical countries. Mosquito in he hotter climates that carry this parasite bits a human and passes on these parasites to humans. And, humans become infected. However, P. vivax can survive colder climates and can certainly cause a less deadly malaria. There was once malaria in some parts of Europe, but the community and government succeeded in removing the parasite.
Comments
Mark commented on :
I work on a range of parasitic infections. Like Claire I have worked a lot on schistosomiasis, but also on malaria, Ascaris, Trichuris, pinworms and hookworms. I am interested in co-infections of different species which is a very common situation in parts of the world. Many millions of children are infected by all the parasites listed above plus others. It has a detrimental effect on growth in particular.
Franco commented on :
I currently work on Schistosomes and Echinococcus, and a little bit on Fasciola, in teh pastI have worked on Trypanosoma, Toxocara and Brugia malayi. My approach is a molecular one, trying to understand how the parasite interacts with the human host.
Linda commented on :
Hey Claire, that is interesting, I will call you the warm lady from now, ha,ha….