Advisory Board and Editors Parasitology
Kenneth De Baets
I am a paleobiologist. My main research focuses on reproductive strategies and macroevolution, particularly on the contributions of biotic interactions (e.g., parasitism) and abiotic factors (e.g., climate) in controlling evolutionary and diversity patterns. To this end, I work with a variety of approaches that combine research on fossil molluscs, coprolites and fieldwork with large-scale quantitative analyses. Other interests are quantitative methods to study biostratigraphy, intraspecific variability and paleobiology in general. My main taxonomic expertise is on invertebrates, mainly (extinct) cephalopod mollusks and parasitic helminths. The promotion of diversity and young scientists as well as scientific collaboration and reproducibility in paleontology are particularly close to my heart.
Nicholas J Dickens
Associate Research Professor in Bioinformatics at Florida Atlantic University. Research focus genomics of marine organisms, environmental microbiomes and machine learning to understand genome sequence. Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology, University of Glasgow Bioinformatics team for 7 years and lead the team for 4 of those. Also lead an experimental sequencing team in the Centre and has a bioinformatics research group. Originally, studied Biology at Imperial College London and moved into bioinformatics at NV Organon Pharmaceuticals in the Netherlands. Following this he had a research post at the MRC Functional Genetics Unit, University of Oxford where he stayed to do his genome informatics PhD. Has held research post-doctoral posts in London working in type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease at Imperial College, and cancer biology at the Institute of Cancer Research.
Tushar K. Dutta
I am a Senior Scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, involved in pursuing basic and applied research in the field of Nematology and Entomology.
As an alternative to Bt Cry toxins for insect pest management, a number of novel bacterial protein toxins (Txp40, TcaB) derived from an insect-parasitic bacterium Photorhabdus akhurstii (symbiont of nematode Heterorhabditis indica) were characterized. The mode of action and pathogenesis process of these toxins were investigated in different lepidopteran insects including Galleria mellonella, Helicoverpa armigera, Spodoptera litura and S. exigua. The potential receptor proteins and their binding sites for these toxins were unravelled from the insect midgut epithelial cells.
My other research interests include molecular basis of plant-nematode interaction. Using RNAi, functional analysis of several plant parasitism processes was deciphered including the role of Mi-cpl-1 in metabolic process, FLP and NLP neuropeptides in neuromusculation process, ODR and TAX proteins in chemotaxis process, cell wall degrading enzymes and various MSP effectors in infection process of plant nematodes. I have contributed in understanding the genetic basis of nematode resistance in rice via genome-wide association mapping coupled with omics-driven strategies. I am currently pursuing genome editing research for developing nematode resistance by adopting CRISPR-Cas9 strategy in Arabidopsis, rice and tomato.
Marcelo U. Ferreira
Prof. Marcelo Ferreira is a medical parasitologist with over 20-year experience in field-oriented and laboratory research. He graduated in Medicine from the University of São Paulo, Brazil (1988), where he was trained in Internal Medicine (1999-2004) and obtained his MSc (1993) and PhD (1997) degrees. Further research training was obtained in Japan (Nagoya University, 1995-97) and the United States (Harvard University, 2005-06). He teaches medical parasitology at the University of São Paulo since 1990 and currently serves as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee on Malaria of the Pan-American Health Organization.
Alex T Ford
Alex completed an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences (1996) at the University of Plymouth (England, UK) before embarking on a masters in Environmental Biology at Swansea University (Wales, 1997). After spending several years working as a marine benthic ecologist and taxonomist he undertook a PhD in Invertebrate Physiology and Ecotoxicology at Napier University Edinburgh (Scotland, 2001-2004). Between 2004 and 2008 he continued to be based in Scotland working as a Lecturer in Marine Biology and Ecotoxicology before moving south to the University of Portsmouth (England) where he is now a Professor of Biology. His expertise lies mainly in invertebrate biology, ecology and ecotoxicology.
He is currently course leader for an MSc entitled Applied Aquatic Biology and unit leader for courses on: Ecotoxicology and Pollution; Science and the Media; Marine Ecophysiology and Marine & Terrestrial Ecology.
Bernardo Franco
Dr. Franco has 20 years experience in academic research in microbiology, molecular biology, and biochemistry. Skills acquired during academic research include mainly nucleic acid manipulation, synthetic biology, bioinformatics, PCR, RT-PCR and qPCR, protein purification and characterization, light and confocal microscopy, flow cytometry and cell sorting, microbiological techniques (microorganism and cell culture, and collection management), good laboratory practices among others. He has eight years teaching experience in undergraduate and graduate programs (Signal transduction in bacteria and Molecular biology techniques, respectively).
Joseph J Gillespie
Dr. Gillespie is an evolutionary biologist with broad interests in organismal and molecular evolution. The major focus of his current research is deciphering the mechanisms by which obligate intracellular species of Rickettsiales (Alphaproteobacteria) invade, survive and replicate within eukaryotic cells.
In research funded by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Gillespie utilizes phylogenetics, comparative genomics and bioinformatics to guide experimental research on various pathogenic species of Rickettsia and their associated arthropod vectors. His early research resulted in the reclassification of Rickettsia species and the identification of many lineage-specific pathogenicity factors. Through years of intense scrutinization of dozens of diverse rickettsial genomes, Dr. Gillespie and colleagues have described a large, dynamic mobilome for Rickettsia species, resulting in the identification of integrative conjugative elements as the vehicles for seeding Rickettsia genomes with many of the factors underlying obligate intracellular biology and pathogenesis. Via an iterative process of genome sequencing, phylogenomics, bioinformatics, and classical molecular biology and microbiology, Dr. Gillespie continues to lead and assist research projects on the characterization of rickettsial gene and protein function, as well as the description of cell envelope glycoconjugates.
Stephanie S Godfrey
Lecturer in the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Research interests include animal behaviour (and specifically animal social networks), host-parasite ecology, and conservation biology.
Carlos Gutiérrez
Carlos Gutiérrez, DVM (Córdoba, 1986), diplomate in Public Health (Madrid, 1988), PhD (Las Palmas, 1995), Master in Public Health (Las Palmas, 2003), University Expert in Biostatistics (Madrid, 2006), diplomate European College Small Ruminant Health Management (-ECSRHM-Brussels, 2013), is currently Full Professor at Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciencies/School of Veterinary Science, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
He has developed several projects, collaborations and training periods in the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp, Belgium), Swiss Tropical and Public Health (Basel, Switzerlandor) or Vlaam Biotchnology Institute (Brussels, Belgium).
He has particular interest on animal tropical diseases (trypanosomosis in special) as well as biomedical applications of nanobodies (VHH). Currently he is an active member of different international committees like ad-hoc OIE group on non tse-tse transmitted animal trypanosomes (OIE, Paris), Camel Section of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP, Roma) or Teaching committee of the ECSRHM (Brussels) and belongs to several Societies like New York Academy of Sciences or National Geographic Society.
Brock A Harpur
Brock Harpur is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University. His work explores the evolution and genetics of honey bees. Brock completed his Ph.D. on population genomics of honey bees at York University. Brock has been awarded the prestigious Julie Payette Research Scholarship from the National Science and Engineering Research Council, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Entomological Society of Canada’s President’s Prize, and was an Elia Research Scholar during his time at York University.
Bill Hooker
PhD = cloning and characterizing potential vaccine antigens from schistosomes; first postdoc = fine details of HIV replication (with David Harrich); second postdoc = best ignored; third postdoc = role of Max network, especially Mnt, in cancer and development (with Peter Hurlin). After that I made HIV POC tests and other diagnostic devices in two small biotech companies. Now I'm a research manager with Canon US Life Sci.
Jean-Lou Justine
Professor of parasitology at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.
A specialist of systematics of monogeneans and certain parasitic nematodes, also interested in parasite biodiversity in coral reef fish, phylogeny of Platyhelminthes and Nematodes, and land planarians. Curator of the collections of parasitic worms of the MNHN.
Former Editor of “Zoosystema” and “Mémoires du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle”. Currently Editor of “Parasite”, an open-access journal.
See my Publons profile for more information on peer-review activity.