Psyched to have this now published. Thanks to the reviewers and editors for helping us improve the paper. Congrats to the undergrad authors! journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

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...

journals.plos.org

Nic Wheeler@wheelerlab.bio · last yr.

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.

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

In response to the SNAP lapse and the ensuing rush on food banks, students in my lab organized a food & fund drive for a local food bank, Feed My People. Our goal is to raise 500 lbs of food and $500, which would amount to thousands of meals. We'd appreciate your generosity!

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...

Tissue-specific distribution of eggs in the definitive host drives transcriptomic and behavioral differences in Schistosoma mansoni miracidia

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by human-infective schistosomes (Trematoda: Schistosoma). Intestinal schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa and the Neotropics is caused primarily...

biorxiv.org

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

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

Our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Activity is a yearly highlight of mine. Proud of the students and their 5 poster presentations!

Such an important resource. Subscribe with me!

@veupathdb.org · last yr.

Keep VEuPathDB open-access to all by subscribing today! veupathdb.org/veupathdb/ap...

UWEC students won an unprecedented three (3!) Goldwater Scholarships this year, and our lab member Rachel was one of them! I’m so proud of Rachel’s development as a scientist and excited that she’s been recognized as a future leader. Check out the story on her award: www.uwec.edu/stories/firs...

From first-gen transfer jitters to Goldwater Scholar: Rachel Horejsi

Rachel Horejsi Goldwater Award

uwec.edu

Now published at IJP:DDR! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A graphical user interface for wrmXpress 2.0 streamlines helminth phenotypic screening

Image-based phenotypic screening is a fundamental technique used to better understand the basic biology of helminths and advance discovery of new anth…

sciencedirect.com

Nic Wheeler@wheelerlab.bio · last yr.

Very excited to release the first project from my lab, an update of wrmXpress with a graphical user interface: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Very excited to release the first project from my lab, an update of wrmXpress with a graphical user interface: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A graphical user interface for wrmXpress 2.0 streamlines helminth phenotypic screening

Image-based phenotypic screening is a fundamental technique used to better understand the basic biology of helminths and advance discovery of new anthelmintics. Miniaturization of screening platforms ...

biorxiv.org

Where were you when the American biomedical research apparatus collapsed?

Speaking of Google Chrome…as I do at least once a year, this week I tried to force myself to switch to Safari and yet once again failed because it just isn’t a very good piece of software.

Hi everyone! For those of us who have a lab website, it’s simple to use the website domain as your BSKY handle. It’s also possible to provide subdomains for other members of the lab. Checkout their instructions: bsky.social/about/blog/4...

Trying to find my way around here. Have created a starter pack for parasitologists. Join, connect and spread the word! go.bsky.app/5UiPsYr

Parasitologists Unite

Join the conversation

go.bsky.app

The best thing about research at a PUI is getting to do whatever I want. Excited to see how 3D printing capabilities broadens the types of experiments we can do.