POST-GRADS
MSc, Liverpool School of Tropical Med
Francesca did her MSc on the molecular biology and development of Anopheles mosquitoes (i.e. malarial vectors), and specialised in Parasitology and Evolution in her BSc from the University of Bristol. At present she is a volunteer working in our lab on the hedgehog signaling pathway in Hymenolepis microstoma
PhD Student, Institute of Parasitology, Czech Republic
Laboratory of Molecular Taxonomy
Institute of Parasitology
Biology Centre, AS CR, v.v.i.
Branisovska 31
37005 Ceske Budejovice
Czech Republic
T +420 38 777 5428
F +420 38 531 0388
M +420 777 868 655
E brabcak_@_paru.cas.cz
Honza did an MSc with Tomas Scholz in which he used molecular phylogenetics to try and resolve the early diversification pattern of the cestodes through greater taxonomic sampling. He has continued with Tomas for his PhD and has continued to develop this question. He is now exploring the utility of spliced leader genes in flatworms to overcome the limitations of ribosomal data. This work is being directed by Klaus Brehm and myself, and Honza has made a number of visits to Klaus' lab in order to acquire new techniques.
Kuchta R, T Scholz, J Brabec, D Jirsová and A Gustinelli. 2008. Bothriocephalidean tapeworms (Cestoda) from the blackfish, Centrolophus niger (Perciformes: Centrolophidae). Folia Parasitologica 55: 111-121 PDF | PubMed
Kuchta R, T Scholz, J Brabec, and RA Bray. 2008. Suppression of the tapeworm order Pseudophyllidea (Platyhelminthes: Eucestoda) and the proposal of two new orders, Bothriocephalidea and Diphyllobothriidea. International Journal for Parasitology 38: 49-55 PDF | PubMed
Brabec J, R Kuchta, and T Scholz. 2006. Paraphyly of the Pseudophyllidea (Platyhelminthes: Cestoda): Circumscription of monophyletic clades based on phylogenetic analysis of ribosomal RNA. International Journal for Parasitology 36: 1535-1541 PDF | PubMed
Škeríková A, J Brabec, Kuchta, R., JA Jiménez, HH García, and T Scholz. 2006. Is the human-infecting Diphyllobothrium pacificum: a valid species or just a South American population of the holarctic broadfish tapeworm, D. latum? A molecular evidence. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 75: 307-310 PDF | PubMed
FORMER POST-GRADS
MSc, Imperial College, London
Nick spent a year in the lab after the completion of his MSc with Tim Barraclough at Imperial College, and led investigations of the Wnt pathway in Hymenolepis.
In August 2011 Nick left for Galway, Ireland, to take up a PhD offer in the lab of Gerhard Schlosser.
Riddiford N and PD Olson. 2011. Wnt gene loss in flatworms. Development Genes and Evolution 221:187-197 PDF | PubMed
BSc, University of Aberyswyth, Wales
Lucas holds a degree in biological sciences from the Univ of Aberyswyth in Wales and joined our group as a volunteer in order to gain experience in research. Lucas is helping us in a number of areas including the setup of quantitative PCR reactions and maintenance and sample preparation of our model tapeworm Hymenolepis microstoma. Lucas has recently finished a redescription of species, based on light microscopy and SEM, bringing the 150+ year old species description up-to-date, in line with release of the d. His is also working with Alex Gruhl to characterize the anatomy using confocal microscopy.
Lucas is currently undertaking an MSc in tropical medicine at the London School.
Pouchkina-Stantcheva NN, LJ Cunningham and PD Olson. (in press) Spatial and temporal consistency of putative reference genes for real-time PCR in a model tapeworm. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology PROOFS
Cunningham LJ and PD Olson. 2010. Description of Hymenolepis microstoma (Nottingham strain): a classical tapeworm model for research in the genomic era. Parasites & Vectors 3:123 PDF | PubMed
PhD, University of Valencia, Spain
Isabelle studied haploporid digeneans and their position within the Trematoda. She did much of the molecular work for her PhD in our lab. Isa successfully defended her PhD in the Spring, 2009 and will move on to a post-doc with Robert Poulan in New Zealand.
Blasco-Costa I, JA Balbuena, JA Raga, A Konstadinova and PD Olson. 2010. Molecules and morphology reveal cryptic variation among digeneans infecting sympatric mullets in the Mediterranean. Parasitology 137:282-302. PDF | PubMed
Blasco-Costa I, JA Balbuena, A Konstadinova and PD Olson. 2009. Interrelationships of the Haploporinae (Digenea: Haploporidae): a molecular test of the taxonomic framework based on morphology. Parasitology International 58:263-269. PDF | PubMed
PhD, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Joana studied flatfishes and their parasites off the coast of Portugal. We worked together on studies of the unsegmented tapeworm Didymobothrium rudolphii from the sandsole, Solea lascaris. Joana was supervised in Lisbon by Henrique Cabral and in Porto by Maria Santos.
Dr Celia Augusti
PhD, University of Valencia, Spain
Celia studied parasites of cetaceans, particularly the larval tetraphyllideans. In Celia's case, I acted more as a collaborator than as advisor.
Aznar FJ, C Agusti, DTJ Littlewood, JA Raga and PD Olson. 2007. Insight into the role of cetaceans in the life cycle or tetraphyllideans (Platyhelminthes: Cestoda). International Journal for Parasitology 37:243-255 PDF | PubMed
Agusti C, FJ Aznar, PD Olson, DTJ Littlewood and JA Raga. 2005. Morphological and molecular characterization of tetraphyllidean merocercoids of striped dolphins from the western Mediterranean. Parasitology 130:461-474 PDF | PubMed
Delphine Thenet
MSc, University of London, Royal Holloway
Delphine was supervised by Ruth Kirk at Royal Holloway and by me at the NHM where she conducted the molecular component of her thesis. Delphine was awarded an MSc in 2006 and is pursuing a PhD at the same institution.
THESIS: "Validation of molecular markers and host-specificity as identification tools for species determination of Diplozoidae (Monogenea, Polyopisthocotylea) on British freshwater fish"
MSc Students in Advanced Methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity (Imperial College & NHM)
MSc, Imperial College, London
THESIS "Developmental regulatory genes in parasitic flatworms", September 2011
Melissa's thesis focused on the expression of the germline/stem-cell marker genes vasa, piwi and nanos, in the Hymenolepis model.
Rebecca Pearson
MSc, Imperial College, London
THESIS "Resolving the interrelationships of the Spathebothriidea", September 2010
PDF Thesis PDF Appendices
Becky's work addresses the interrelationships of the unusual tapeworm order Spathebothriidea, a small and disparate group of tapeworms that lack somatic segmentation while showing repetition of the reproductive organs. A main component of the project is the generation of DNA sequence data from formalin-preserved specimens, as certain taxa appear to be under threat, if not already extinct (in this case due to overfishing of sturgeon). This work is being done in collaboration with Roman Kuchta of the Univ South Bohemia, Czech Republic.
Becky has left the NHM for a lab technician position at Imperial College (Paddington) and is working on neurobiology.
Anne O'Connor
MSc, Imperial College, London
THESIS "Molecular discrimination of the European Mesocestoides species complex", September 2009
PDF Thesis
Anne is now working on a PhD at the Univ of Bath, where she recently won an award for the poster she presented on her thesis work.
Josephine Hill
MSc, Imperial College, London
THESIS: "Toward the circumscription of natural genera among ray-hosted trypanorhynch tapeworms", July 2008
Thesis & Viva Examinations
Matheiu Badets, PhD, Etude de la plasticité de developpement de Polystoma gallieni, parasite de la rainette meridionale Hyla méridionalis: approaches écologiques et moléculaires. Académie de Montpellier, Université de Perpignan, France. 2009
Terrence Miller, PhD, The Cryptogonimidae Ward, 1917 (Platyhelminthes: Digenea), with emphasis on taxa infecting indo-west Pacific Lutjanidae and Haemulidae (Perciformes). University of Queensland, Australia. 2008
Haseeb Randhawa, PhD, Assessment of host specificity and identity of its determinants in tetraphyllideans infectiving rajid hosts in the North Atlantic. University of New Brunswick, Canada. 2007
Jan Brabec, MSc, Paraphyly of pseudophyllidean tapeworms: testing a phylogenetic hypothesis using sequence data (18S & 28S rDNA). University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic. 2006
Julian D. Carter, MPhil, The effects of preservation and conservation treatments on the DNA of museum invertebrate fluid preserved collections. Cardiff School of Biosciences, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK. 2004