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...
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...
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!🪱
And great to see our snail paper included in the Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights! www.nature.com/collections/...
Great post Jacob, I personally loved the analogies of Hitchcock characters & footballs! It is hard to not think of the Cristiani effect (and 'Force D') as just categories of 'chance', but then so is genetic drift... It is conceptually quite hard to think with these 3rd and 4th dimensions (forces)!
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...
Job opportunity for a Research Fellow at LSHTM in the Schistosomiasis Research Group: jobs.lshtm.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...
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/...
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.
Life cycle of Schistosoma mansoni from https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bugbitten/
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... 🐌🪱🧬
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...
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" 🫠
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...
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?...
