Rapid diagnostic assay distinguishing the snail vectors Bulinus globosus and Bulinus nasutus for urogenital schistosomiasis transmission risk mapping in East Africa, accepted paper available today: doi.org/10.1017/S003...

After nearly 80 years of combined service to malaria research, Professors Colin Sutherland and David Baker are retiring from @lshtm.bsky.social. Their impact on science, global health and future generations of researchers will be felt for years to come. Read more 👉 bit.ly/4uKVKqg

Two Careers, One Lasting Impact: Celebrating Colin Sutherland and David Baker

Two Careers, One Lasting Impact: Celebrating Colin Sutherland and David Baker | LSHTM

bit.ly

A protocol for performing whole genome sequencing of individual Schistosoma haematobium larva stored on FTA cards. Following this protocol (inc. diagnosis), with list price consumables, I currently estimate one can achieve a ~50x coverage of each genome for ~£104 www.protocols.io/view/schisto...

Schistosoma haematobium larva FTA-to-WGS

Schistosoma haematobium larva FTA-to-WGS. This protocol describes the isolation of individual schistos. Read full protocol, steps, and materials on protocols.io

protocols.io

It was a huge honour to receive the @bspparasitology.bsky.social President's Medal last week in Glasgow. Thank you to my amazing colleagues, collaborators and friends, without whom this would not have been possible!

British Society for Parasitology@bspparasitology.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This year's C.A. Wright Medal and President's Medal were awarded to Prof Goylette Chami from the University of Oxford @ox.ac.uk and Dr Tom Pennance @schistosoma.bsky.social from the Natural History Museum @nhm-london.bsky.social for their outstanding contributions in Schistosomiasis Epidemiology.

Also our Schistosome Snail Vectors Pocket Guide is online with the @gsa.bsky.social! Providing a simple, quick visual reference to support rapid field differentiation of Bulinus & Biomphalaria from similar freshwater snails across Africa, see: www.eliminateschisto.org/schistosome-...

new awesome (open access) book available for advanced undergraduates to early postdoctoral researchers interested in learning more or using phylogenetic comparative methods!!

Natalie Cooper@nhcooper123.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Hi all. I am very excited that after 6 years I finally got my phylogenetic comparative methods book and online exercises online. Feel free to use and share. The book is here: nhcooper123.github.io/pcm-primer/. Note that it is not finished, we had to abandon it before the sunk costs fallacy broke us

TRPtracker paper live: A community resource that catalogues variation within TRPMpzq - the praziquantel (preventative chemotherapeutic for schistosomiasis) target channel. Tracks sensitivity of TRPMpzq variants aiding surveillance of variants that may impact PZQ sensitivity. doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...

Two great postdoctoral opportunities available in Montpellier / Perpignan 🇫🇷 on the InvaSnail project that focus directly on Fasciola snail vectors, host–parasite interactions, environmental change: Genome sequencing/GWAS: ihpe.fr/wp-content/u... Ecological niche modelling: ihpe.fr/wp-content/u...

Some snaps from some great fieldwork in Pemba TZ last week.

Just thoroughly enjoyed chairing meeting with the @gsa.bsky.social Snail Vectors working group on germline gene editing in Biomphalaria. Thanks Drs. Zhang and Kuroda for presenting. You can find their two recent papers here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... and: www.frontiersin.org/journals/gen...

CRISPR/Cas9-germline editing of Biomphalaria glabrata: A breakthrough in genetic modification of snails that transmit schistosomiasis

Creation of germline-edited vector snails is a key advance in efforts to combat schistosomiasis.

science.org

A new issue of #PhilTransB explores the importance and control of hybrid #schistosomes in Africa and beyond #parasitology. Read open access here: buff.ly/1K4bmlI

Excited to announce a forthcoming public'n ‘Marine crabs and lobsters from Gulf of Mexico and adjacent waters, Florida to Belize: Darryl L.Felder's magnus opus in 3 vols 'A colour-illustrated catalogue and keys to reptant decapod crustaceans'. More posts coming with vol content.

Great to see @wheelerlab.bio paper out, using a custom imaging and computational system for tracking and screening schistosome miracidia, helping to elucidate how the larvae respond to chemical signals from snails: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Quantitative ethology of schistosome miracidia characterizes a conserved snail peptide that inhibits host recognition

Author summary Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease that affects hundreds of millions of people, especially in regions with limited access to clean water. To complete its life cycle, the parasite mu...

doi.org

Our paper measuring gene expression of Biomphalaria sudanica candidate immune genes across snails of different susceptibilities and in response to schistosome exposure and diet published in Journal of Helminthology this past week: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Recommended reading @wheelerlab.bio! Experimental work using schistosomes is challenging, and therefore procedures simplifying and maximising parasite yield is vital and often used. However, we must acknowledge and accommodate for how these processes impact worm biology, as detailed here!🪱

Nic Wheeler@wheelerlab.bio · 12mo ago

I am pleased to present a project we've been working on for the least year to try to answer a fundamental question - does a parasite's developmental niche as an egg have effects on larval stages? We show that the answer is very much yes - which has a few implications. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Not the main point of this post of course, but I really do like viewing fitness as gravity pulling something down as opposed to the classic metaphor of climbing a peak. adaptivediversity.wordpress.com/2025/08/05/c...

Cristiani Returns

The Anthropic Principle explains certain observations about the physical world: that we could not be here observing them if things were otherwise. Several different related concepts have been calle…

adaptivediversity.wordpress.com

Job opportunity for a Research Fellow at LSHTM in the Schistosomiasis Research Group: jobs.lshtm.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Job Opportunity at LSHTM: Research Fellow

We are seeking to hire a Research Fellow to join a recently funded exciting EDCTP clinical trials group for the next 3-4 years involving 5 sub-Saharan African partners and 5 European partners aiming t...

jobs.lshtm.ac.uk

Great to see my friend/colleague Hugh Carter's work given the spotlight here! I wish I could test some tests, just to say I'v done that... www.theguardian.com/environment/...

What recreating Scott’s Antarctic expedition reveals about our seas today

A new polar project compared samples with those collected more than a century ago by by Scott, along with voyages led by Shackleton and Borchgrevink

theguardian.com

Very excited and proud to release a project that I’ve been thinking about for at least 7 years, well before I started my faculty position. We built an imaging and computational platform from the ground up to help answer some outstanding questions in schistosome miracidia biology.

Quantitative ethology of schistosome miracidia characterizes a conserved snail peptide that inhibits penetration

Over 700 million people are at risk of contracting schistosomiasis due to regular exposure to freshwater sources where infected snails, the obligate intermediate hosts of schistosomes, are endemic. Al...

biorxiv.org

Schistosomiasis is a human disease from worms spread by snails. I and others have long studied Latin American snails B. glabrata to find genomic regions affecting schisto resistance. But most schisto occurs in Africa, transmitted by other snails. Now with @schistosoma.bsky.social we address this…

New research w/ @jacobphd.bsky.social et al. published today in Nature Communications: Genes linked to schistosome resistance identified in a genome-wide association study of African snail vectors doi.org/10.1038/s414... 🐌🪱🧬

Genes linked to schistosome resistance identified in a genome-wide association study of African snail vectors - Nature Communications

A genome wide association study of an African vector of schistosomiasis revealed two genomic regions associated with resistance to Schistosoma mansoni. These findings will inform novel control strateg...

doi.org

All talks recorded from @royalsociety.org meeting on hybrid schistosomes now available online. "Parasite evolution and impact in action: assessing the importance of hybrid schistosomes in Africa": royalsociety.org/science-even...

Parasite evolution and impact in action: assessing the importance of hybrid schistosomes in Africa | Royal Society

Science+ meeting organised by Professor J Russell Stohard, Professor Janelisa Musaya, Dr Alexandra Juhasz, and Dr Lucas Cunningham

royalsociety.org

New paper investigating the mating system of Biomphalaria sudanica, a vector of Schistosoma mansoni that seems to preferentially outcross given the option. doi.org/10.1016/j.cr...

wait, @britishecolsoc.bsky.social I thought you'd "agreed steps to make sure this doesn't happen again" 🫠

Journal of Animal Ecology@animalecology.bsky.social · 2y ago

Our Senior Editors and Commissioning Editor have written an editorial, "conceptualising ecology to support more theory-driven research"🌿🐜🦓 https://buff.ly/3P1YwEg @robsalgo.bsky.social @lancasterlt.bsky.social @natejsanders.bsky.social @dmevans.bsky.social

Determining accurate intramolluscan schistosome infections is complicated, and can impact downstream analysis. In our paper just published, we have tried to lay out some of the possible outcomes of snail-parasite exposure with a diagnostic PCR assay meridian.allenpress.com/journal-of-p...

New samples and data point towards imported Schistosoma bovis infections in cattle on Unguja Island, Zanzibar, in the preprint from @russstothard.bsky.social and colleagues: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5...

Job opportunity: Assistant or Associate Professor of Parasitology at @unm.bsky.social - fantastic opportunity for those interested in parasite natural history collections, ecology, evolution, systematics and teaching and training - and surrounded by a greta group! unm.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Assistant or Associate Professor of Biology – Robert L. Rausch Chair, MSB Curator of Parasites

We invite applications for an endowed professorship, the Robert L. Rausch Chair of Parasitology. The Chair will be an Assistant or Associate Professor...

unm.csod.com

Looking forward to using blue sky! Happy to see many friends and colleagues already here! I will probably regret not chosing my name for my handle, but the temptation, and then the hard decision to make between, choosing either schistosoma, bulinus and biomphalaria was too much.

Interested in Schisto research and interventions? 🪱 For >15 years, @swisstph.bsky.social 🇨🇭 and the Public Health Lab - IdC 🇹🇿 conducted research and implemented interventions in Pemba, TZ, now approaching elimination. 📽 Watch our new documentary here showing these efforts: youtu.be/sGwnGLug-Aw?...

Documentary: Schistosomiasis research and interventions in Pemba, Tanzania

YouTube video by SwissTPH

youtu.be