Schistosomes are parasitic flatworms that perform dramatic migrations over the course of their complicated life cycle. The main parasite of interest in our lab is Schistosoma mansoni, a flatworm that passes through aquatic snails and infects people who venture into contaminated waterways. The fundamental question that we seek to answer is: how exactly do worms find and infect their intermediate (snails) and definitive (humans) hosts?
We use a combination of molecular biology, bioinformatics, and custom advanced imaging platforms to answer this question. We also incorporate free living model organisms to better understand the neurobiology of the flatworm phylum as a whole. We are funded by a variety of local and federal sources and have active collaborations throughout the world.
