News

Congratulations to HPI Faculty member, Dr. Mindi Summers for receiving the 2020 Faculty of Science Awards of Excellence - Early Career Teaching Excellence Award, Biological Sciences.  Click here for more details.

Congratulations to Camila de Queiroz, PhD candidate in Dr. John Gilleard's lab for being awarded the Alberta graduate excellence scholarship (AGES) – Internatiional.

Dr. Derek McKay has been elected a Fellow of the American Physiological Society (APS). "The rank of Fellow of the APS is reserved to honor distinguished leaders who have demonstrated excellence in science, have made significant contributions to the physiological sciences and served the Society."

UToday posted an article about HPI Faculty member, Dr. Nathan Peters and his lab's research to unlock new insights that could help with vaccine development.  Click here to read the article.

Congratulations to Ashley Pidwerbesky, MSc student in the Detwiler lab (UManitoba) for receivig a Master's Award for Indigeouns Students from the University of Manitoba for the coming year.

Congratulations to Danielle Barry (Hanington lab, UofA) for successfully defending her Master's thesis.

Congratulations to Dr. John Gilleard for receiving a total of $500,000 from the National Institutes of Health Sciences as co-applicant with Dr Erik Anderson , Northwestern University, Chicago  to fund a 5 year project  on the  “Discovery of novel benzimidazole resistance mechanisms”

Congratulations to Anupama Ariyaratne (HPI Alumni - Finney lab) for receiving the Jim and Josie Grey Award (Biological Sciences Teaching Award) and also for being runner up for the Dr. R. E. Huber Thesis Award.

Congratulations to Dr. Jillian Detwiler, University of Manitoba, for being elected as an officer to the American Society of Parasitologists Council for a 4-year term.

Congratulations to Dr. James Wasmuth for being awarded an Animal Health Research Grant from the Margaret Gunn Endowment.

Dr. James Wasmuth is serving on the new Committee of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for the Canadian Society of Zoologists.

Congratulations to Dr. James Wasmuth for receiving a renewal for his NSERC Discovery Grant. This will enable him to do further work on how helminths modulate the behaviour of their hosts. Dr. Wasmuth was also awarded the prestigious accelerator supplement.

Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay for receiving an honorary doctorate from Linkoping University, Sweden.

Press release:

"This weekend (May 20th), six international researchers would become honorary doctorates at Linköping University. But the corona pandemic came in between and the Academic celebration has moved to the fall.   The six selected researchers work closely with LiU researchers in language and literacy, climate policy, AI, organic electronics, medical imaging and inflammatory diseases.

The honorary doctor of medicine has been appointed to Derek McKay, a professor at the University of Calgary. McKay is a well-established researcher in physiology and pathophysiology of the gastrointestinal tract, especially in relation to inflammatory diseases. McKay's research is primarily about how infections in the gut can affect the immune system of the intestinal mucosa in inflammatory disease. The scientific collaboration between McKay and research groups at Linköping University was established in the early 2000s and through his methodological and immunophysiological knowledge, McKay has deepened gastrointestinal research in Linköping." 

Congratulations to Affan Siddiq, MSc student in Dr. Andre Buret's lab for recieving an NSERC CGS-M award.

Congratulations to Anupama Ariyaratne in Constance Finney's lab for successfully defending her PhD Thesis on April 15, 2020. The title of her thesis was: "Characterizing host protective immune responses to the parasitic worm Heligmosomides polygyrus."

Congratulations to Abhinaya Venkatesan, PhD student in the Gilleard lab for receiving (March 2020) a a “Dean's International Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship" from the Graduate Scholarship Office, University of Calgary.

Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay who has been selected as the 2020 recipient of the C.P. Read Mentorship Award from the American Society of Parasitologists.

"The award is to honor an individual who, during his or her career, has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in the training of young scientists who have successfully pursued the independent study of parasites or aspects of the host-parasite relationship. Further, the individual shall have influenced the research and/or graduate education of a department, college or institution to significantly increase the number of students completing graduate level training in the various disciplines of parasitology" (ASP website).

HPI Faculty member Dr. Dylan Pillai is featured in the UToday article regarding receiving federal funding to accelerate the development, testing and implementation of countermeasures to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19.

 

HPI Faculty members, Dr. Andre Buret, Dr. Derek McKay and Dr. Kris Chadee, all CAG Fellows attending CDDW 2020.

Congratulations to Dr. Dylan Pillai for receiving a CIHR Grant (2020) based on "Development and implementation of rapid metagenomic sequencing coupled with isothermal amplification point of care testing for viral diagnostics".

Congratulations to Thibault Allain, PDF in the Buret lab for being a recipient of the American Society for Investigative Pathology Trainee Travel Award 2020.

Drs. John Gilleard and Cam Goater and HPI alumni, Brad van Paridon, PhD have published a paper in PNAS entitled: Clonemate cotransmission supports a role for kin selection in a puppeteer parasite.  https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/02/25/1922272117

This journal article is highlighted in UToday: Ingenious parasitic worm takes over brains of ‘zombie ants’ to ensure species survives.

Congratulations to Rebecca Chen in the Gilleard lab for being awarded  an Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES).

Congratulations to Nidhi Sharma and Camila Queiroz from the Gilleard lab who won runner up prizes for best talk and poster respectively at UCVM grad student research day on February 27, 2020.

Congratulations to Sruthi Rajeev, MSc student in the McKay lab, Affan Siddiq, MSc student, Elena Fekete, PhD student and Thibault Allain, PDF, all in the Buret lab for having their abstracts accepted for presentation at the Experiemental Biology Meeting in San Diego in April, 2020.

Congratulations to Adam Ranson, MSc student in the Peters lab for receiving a Faculty of Graduate Studies Master's Scholarship.

Dr. Susan Kutz's lab hosts workshop for northern Indigenous hunters.  Click to see the UToday article.

Congratulations to Dr. Andre Buret and Dr. Kris Chadee for being elected as Fellow of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG).  The recognition as Fellow (CAGF) will be conferred at the CAG annual conference in Montreal in February 2020.

Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay who is the 2020 recipient of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology's (CAG) Distinguished Service Award.  The award will be presented at the Association's annual conference, Canadian Digestive Disease Week (CDDW) in Montreal in February 2020.

Congratulations to Sruthi Rajeev MSc student in the McKay laboratory for receiving (November 2019) a scholarship from Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES) - International from the Faculty of Graduate studies.

Congratulations to Matheus Carneiro, PDF in the Peters lab for receiving the Beverley Phillips Research Excellence Award 2019" given by the Snyder Institute for Chronic Disease.

Congratulations to Abhinaya Venkatesan, PhD student in the Gilleard lab for receiving (November 2019) a 10K scholarship from Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES) - International  from the Faculty of Graduate studies.

Congratulations to HPI Faculty member, Dr. John Gilleard for receiving “Great Supervisor Award for  2019" from the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Calgary.

Congratulations to Drue Nooyen, summer student in the Gilleard lab who presented her poster at the SU Research Symposium on November 27, 2019 and was awarded the runner up for the GSA Future Innovator Award.

Congratulations to Micky Ahn, University of Lethbridge (Goater lab) for successfully defending his Masters Thesis on November 27, 2019. The title of his thesis was: “Effects of host community structure on parasite transmission and disease risk.”  Micky is now a PhD student with HPI faculty member, Dr. Jocelyn Poissant at the University of Calgary.

To view the latest survey on PhD students, go to: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03459-7

Congratulations to Susan Wang, who successfully defended her MSc on the potential immunomodulatory role of serotonin following infection with the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta on 18th November, 2019.

Susan is now enrolled in medical school at McGill University, and we wish her every success.

Congratulations to HPI faculty member, Dr. Susan Kutz for her induction to the Canadian Academy of Health Science.  Click here for the complete  story.

Congratulations to HPI faculty member, Dr. James Wasmuth for becoming the new Head of University of Calgary's Graduate College.  For the complete story, go to: https://www.ucalgary.ca/news/graduate-college-welcomes-inaugural-head-college

Congratulations to Nathan Peters for being awarded a 5 year (2019-2024) CIHR grant on "Mechanisms of Leishmania dissemination and transit in the mammalian host following vector transmission.”

Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay for being awarded awarded a 5 year (2019-2024) CIHR grant on “Gut Microbiota: the overlooked component of helminth therapy”.

Congratulations to ShuHua (Vicki) Li for being awarded a Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) Summer Studentship to work in the McKay lab on H. diminuta regulation of colitis.

The June 2019 issue of the HPI Happenings Newsletter is now available.  Click here to view it.

After an open call from Trends in Parasitology, we were pleased by how receptive the editor was to our proposal to submit an opinion piece on graduate education in parasitology and the approach used by the HPI program in the Journals “Science & Society" section. We are delighted to tell you our article, “Rethinking Graduate Education in Parasitology: A Case Study”, was accepted and is now online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2019.05.001. Dr. McKay has a hard copy of the article if you would like to stop by his office (HSC 1877) to read it.

Congratulations to Matheus Carneiro for winning 3^rd place for the Poster Pitch Presentation at the Woods Hole Immunoparasitology Meeting (WHIP) 2019. The poster pitches were short oral presentations that needed to convey the key findings of his study to attract the attendees to visit his poster during the poster section. His presentation needed to be under 2 minutes, only 1 slide, and only 3 animations. Matheus contextualized his data under the host immune system/parasitism co-evolution perspective, using the Red Queen Hypothesis to explain his work.

Congratulations to Dr. Cam Goater for receiving a NSERC research grant for the Ecology of host/parasite Interactions.

Congratulations to Dr. Patrick Hanington for receiving NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplements Program and research grants for the Characterization of the determinants of snail-schistosome.

Congratulations to Dr. Kris Chadee for receiving a 5-year NSERC Discovery Grant as well as a 5-year renewal for his CIHR grant entitled: "Characterization of the SNARE machinery in colonic goblet cells that regulates MUC2 mucin exocytosis in innate immunity."

Congratulations to HPI faculty member, Dr. Jocelyn Poissant for receiving a 5-year NSERC Discovery Grant, as well as a Discovery Launch Supplement, for a project entitled “Evolutionary and ecological genetics of fitness related variation in wild animals”

Congratulations to Adam Shute, Ph.D. student in Dr. McKay’s laboratory, for winning the senior trainee research presentation prize at the Shaffer/Davison Research Day for his talk on the role of bacteria in helminth-evoked suppression of colitis.’

Congratulations to Dr. Stephanie Peacock, PDF in the Kutz lab for being awarded a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. To read more, go to May 17th UToday and May 23rd UToday articles.

Congratulations to Abhinaya Venkatesan, PhD student in the Gilleard lab for winning the People's Choice award at the UCalgary 3-Minute Thesis Competition. The 2019 heats were held on March 20th at Foothills Campus.  Abhinaya's title was "Mass deworming programs: a saint or sinner in controlling worm infections?".

Congratulations to HPI Program Advisory Committee member, Dr. Tim Geary, McGill University for receiving the American Society of Parasitology 2019 Clark P. Read Mentor award.

 

Congratulations to Hayley Gorman, PhD student in the Chadee lab for receiving an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship-Doctoral award.

 

Congratulations to Camila de Queiroz, for winning best platform presentation and to Abhinaya Venkatesan and Nidhi Sharma who won runner up for best poster prizes at the UCVM graduate student research day. That was 3 out of the 6 prizes to HPI!

HPI alumni, Brad van Paridon, has written another blog on The Xylom.  Please go to: https://www.thexylom.com/read/bridging-the-void to read it.

Congratulations to Dr. Andre Buret, who is the 2019 recipient of the  “Stoll-Stunkard Memorial Lectureship Award” from the American Society of Parasitologists, an award that “is to honor someone whose prominence in basic research is evident, and whose research might enhance investigations on parasites, hence fostering cross-fertilization of ideas and approaches” (ASP website).  Dr. Buret will give his presentations at the annual ASP meeting in Rochester in July 2019.  This is an outstanding honor and one of which Dr. Buret is highly deserving.

Congratulations to HPI Director, Dr. Andre Buret for being appointed interim vice-president (research) at the University of Calgary. For all of the details, see the UToday article.

Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) who recently received the Alberta Graduate Citizenship Award. This one is especially relevant to HPI as the award focuses on students' contributions to the community. For more information, go to: https://studentaid.alberta.ca/scholarships/alberta-scholarships/?SK=638 as well as https://www.uleth.ca/graduate-studies/awards/alberta-graduate-citizenship-award.

Congratulations to Dr. Cam Goater, as the 2019 awardee of the Wardle Medal from the Parasite, Immunology and Environment section of the Canadian Society for Zoologists (CSZ) for outstanding contributions to parasitology.  As the 2019 Wardle Medalist, Cam gives an address to the CSZ membership attending the Society's annual congress in May 2019. Cam joins HPI members John Gilleard (2018),  Derek McKay (2013), Andre Buret (2008) and Kris Chadee (2005) as recipients of the Wardle Medal.  Well done Cam, a well deserved recognition for your dedication and contributions to advancing parasitological research.

Congratulations to Sruthi Rajeev, a new M.Sc. student with Dr. D.M. McKay, for receiving a Henry Koopmans Memorial Entrance Scholarship in Gastrointestinal Nutrition, Metabolism and Inflammation for 2018.

Congratulations to Sruthi Rajeev and Susan Wang from the McKay lab who had their abstracts accepted as poster presentations at the Canadian Digestive Disease Week Conference, the annual CAG meeting, in Banff March 1-3, 2019.

On Saturday 24^th November, 35 members of the public from the Calgary Chapter of Crohn’s Colitis Canada (CCC), were hosted by Dr. Derek McKay, and HPI trainees, Tim Jayme, Sruthi Rajeev, and Susan Wang, to view the laboratories of the Gastrointestinal Research Group and hear about the leading research being done on inflammatory bowel disease, and how analysis of host-parasite interactions can be used to identify new approaches to treat human disease.

On October 25-26, 2018, HPI participated at the TELUS Spark Science Centre, Shockotober Halloween Event.  For a look at what HPI is doing in community engagement, go to the UToday article.

Brad van Paridon, PhD, HPI Alumni does an "in conversation"  podcast now where he is interviewing different scientists and science communicators etc. His first two episodes are on this link. The first was  Jay Ingram and the second one was with Dr. John Gilleard. The conversations includes a bunch of topics including science communication , social media and grad student career issues, One Health as well as some parasitology at the end of Dr. Gilleard's interview.  https://twobradforyou.wordpress.com/category/tbfy-in-conversation/

Congratulations to HPI Faculty member, Dr. John Gilleard for receiving a grant from the Beef Cattle Research Council.  Please see the UToday article, "From fake cow feces to computer modeling: Investigations tackles costly cattle industry problem."

Congratulations to Michelle Gordy, UofA (Hanington lab) for successfully defending her PhD thesis on September 13, 2018. Her thesis title is "Examination of the diversity and assembly processes of digenean trematode communities in Alberta and the implications of spatio-temporal community dynamics on swimmer's itch transmission in recreational lakes."

Congratulations to Sydney Rudko for being one of three graduate students awarded the National Collaborating Centres for Public Health Knowledge Translation Awards (http://nccph.ca/news/entry/announcing-the-2018-winners-nccph-knowledge-translation-awards) at the Canadian Public Health Association meeting. Additionally she was awarded one of their best presentation awards at the Water and Health Seminar 2018 in Cannes, France.

Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay, the recipient of a 3-year grant (2018-2021) from Crohn’s Colitis Canada to assess the possibility of using human alternatively activated macrophages to treat colitis.

Michelle Gordy, UofA (Hanington lab) will defend her PhD on September 13th at 9 am in ECHA 3-001. Her thesis title is "Examination of the diversity and assembly processes of digenean trematode communities in Alberta and the implications of spatio-temporal community dynamics on swimmer's itch transmission in recreational lakes."

HPI Alumni, Brad van Paridon, PhD has written a blog about his experience in HPI as an HPI trainee.  Go to: https://www.thexylom.com/read/realizing-i-wasn-t-a-great-scientist to read about his valuable experience in the program.

Dr. Derek McKay presented in the President's Symposium at the 93rd Annual American Society of Parasitologists in Cancun on 22nd June on an investigation of the interaction of the mouse micobbome with the tapeworm, Hymenolepis diminuta.  This presentation was based on the Ph.D. research of HPI trainee, Adam Shute, who co-authored the abstract."

See the UCalgary, UToday article talking about HPI Director, Andre Buret's involvement in breakthrough in understanding IBD.

Members of the GIRG, IRN and HPI participated in the 23rd annual sponsored walk (Gutsy Walk) in support of Crohn's Colitis Canada (CCC) on the 3rd June, 2018.  Under captain, Humberto Jijon, the team raised ~$9,000 - a terrific effort, well done.  The team extends it's thanks to all of those who so generously donated to support the CCC mission -  thank you!

Congratulations to Russell Avramenko (Gilleard lab) for receiving the Outstanding Graduate Student award for 2018 from the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists.  Russell will give a 25 minute plenary talk at the AAVP annual conference in Denver, Co.

Congratulations to Aralia Leon Coria (Chadee lab) for receiving her PhD.  Her thesis title is:  "Distinct Roles of the Mucus Layer and Microbiota in Conferring Innate Host Defense and Susceptibility to Disease."

Seminar by Dr. Kara Filbey, visiting speaker from the Malaghan Institute in New Zealand, on Thursday May 31st at 2 PM in HSC 1405B: "The Many Faces of Helminth-Induced Regulation (using hookworm infection & atopic dermatitis models)".

HPI Faculty feature prominently at the Canadian Society of Zoologist Annual meeting in St. John's (May, 2018), where Dr. James Wasmuth will chair a session on "Parasite diagnostics and drug treatments" and Dr. Cam Goater chairs the session on "Influence of parasites on host behaviours and infection dynamics.

Congratulations to Camila Queiroz (Gilleard lab) for passing her PhD candidacy exam.

Congratulations to Jeanie Quach (Chadee) for receiving her PhD.  The title of her thesis is:  "Entamoeba histolytica-Induced Caspase-4 Activation Regulates 1L-1 beta Secretion Through Caspase-1."

Congratulations to Timothy Jayme for successfully defending his M.Sc. on “The human interleukin-4 treated macrophage and epithelial wound repair”.  Tim was co-supervised by Drs. Derek McKay and Paul Beck.”

Congratulations to Andrew Rezansoff (Gilleard lab) for receiving his PhD.  The title of his thesis is: "Investigating the genetic basis of ivermectin resistance in Haemonchus contortus."

Congratulations to Dr. Fernando Lopes, a PDF with Dr. McKay who will begin as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Parasitology, McGill University on August 31, 2018.  Fernando has been omni-present at HPI events over the last 5 years and we are delighted by his success and wish him all the best as he launches his career as an independent PI.

Congratulations to Susan Wang, MSc student in Dr. Derek McKay and Dr. Sharkey's lab, for receiving a 1 year NSERC graduate studentship.

Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) for winning first prize at the University of Lethbridge 3-Minute Thesis competition.  Micky will represent the University of Lethbridge at the Western finals at the University of Regina in April.

Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) for being awarded the Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) Grants in Biodiversity Award.

Congratulations to Adam Shute in the McKay laboratory for a 2-year PhD award from the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology for his doctoral research on “Helminth-microbiota interactions: is there a role for the microbiota in helminth-induced suppression of colitis?”

On March 17th, 2018 HPI Faculty member, Dr. Derek McKay gave a talk at the Libin Theatre, University of Calgary for "Operation Medical School", City of Calgary to ~100 high school students (grade 10-12).. HIs talk was entitled "A career in biomedical research; what is the point of that?

Congratulations to Susan Wang, MSc student in Dr. Derek McKay and Dr. Keith Sharkey's lab, for receiving a Faculty of Graduate Studies Master's Research Scholarship.

Congratulations to Dr. Amanda Melin for receiving a SEM Faculty Seed Grant based on the research proposal: "Health response to drought in free-ranging primates: assessing metabolomics, parasite infection, inflammation and the gut microbiome."  This grant was issued from the University Research Grants Committee.

Congratulations to HPI Alumni, Steve Cornick (Chadee lab) for receiving the MDMI Graduate Program Award for Thesis Excellence.  This award recognizes the quality of Steve's thesis for both research excellence and the effort put in to writing and presenting the data.

Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) for being awarded the "Oldman River Chapter Research in Conservation Scholarship."  As part of the award, Micky will be presenting his work on March 1st at their Annual General Meeting.

Congratulations to Dr. Amanda Melin for receiving a 2017 Killam Emerging Research Leader Award.

Congratulations to Sarah Unrau (Goater lab at UofL) for placing first in the poster presentation at the 7th Annual Biology Graduate Research Symposium at the University of Lethbridge.  The title of her poster was: "Flower choice and aggregation in host decision-making in zombie ants infected with Dicrocoelium dendriticum."

Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) for placing second in the oral presentations at the 7th Annual Biology Graduate Research Symposium at the University of Lethbridge.  The title of his talk was: "Long-term changes in trematode parasitism of minnow populations in southern Alberta."

Many congratulations to HPI alumni, Dr Jocelyn Poissant for his recent appointment to a tenure track faculty position in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary as assistant professor in Wildlife Health Ecology.

Congratulations to Russell Avramenko (Gilleard lab) for receiving his PhD. The title of Russell's thesis was:  "Exploring the “nemabiome”: Deep amplicon sequencing to investigate community structure and drug resistance in parasitic gastrointestinal nematodes of livestock."

It is an honour and a pleasure to announce that the HPI team (trainees and faculty) is the recipient of the 2018 Public Education Award from the Canadian Society of Zoologists (CSZ).

The award will be presented in May 2018 at the CSZ annual meeting in St. John’s Newfoundland in recognition of HPIs outstanding efforts and success in taking science to the Canadian Public.

Congratulations.  Thanks for participating so professionally and enthusiastically in the HPI's public outreach initiatives.  

Congratulations to Professor John Gilleard! John is the 2018 recipient of the Wardle Medal from the Parasitology, Immunology and Environment (PIE) section of the Canadian Society for Zoologists (CSZ).  This award is given to an investigator in Canada that has made an outstanding contribution to Parasitology. John will receive his award and give a lecture at the annual CSZ meeting in May in St. John’s Newfoundland. 

Dr. Gilleard’s award brings the HPI tally to four, as he joins past recipients of the Wardle medal: Derek McKay (2013), Andre Buret (2008) and Kris Chadee (2005).

Elena Rae Fekete, a Master’s sutdent in Dr. Buret’s laboratory, has been awarded a Canadian Associaition of Gastroenterology graduate student prize. Her abstract entitled “THE ROLE OF PROTEASE-ACTIVATED RECEPTOR-2 IN GIARDIA INDUCED DISRUPTIONS OF THE INTESTINAL MUCUS LAYER” was selected for one of the 4 prizes given from over 320 submissions. As a laureate, Elena will deliver 2 oral presentations, one as a trainee at the Research Topics meeting, and one at the international Canadian Digestive Disease Week conference, in Toronto February 9-12, 2018. Congratulation for this tremendous achievement Elena!

Congratulations to Camila Queiroz (Gilleard lab) for being awarded 3rd place and $150 in the Bayer Best Student Paper competition.

Congratulations to Susan Wang, MSc student in Dr. Derek McKay's lab, for receiving the 2017 Henry Koopmans Memorial Entrance Scholarship in Gastrointestinal Nutrition, Metabolism and Inflammation. 

Dr. James Wasmuth from faculty of veterinary medicine uses genomic technology to battle a costly cattle parasite. Read the full story here 

Congratulations to Nicholas Graves for the successful defense of his MSc “An extract of the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta, inhibits neutrophil migration in vitro”, a project conducted under the supervision of Dr. Derek McKay and Dr. John Gilleard.

Congratulations to HPI Collaborator, Amanda Melin, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology for being presented with the Early Career Achievement Award for 2017 at the American Society of Primatologists Annual Meeting.  Click here to read full article.

Congratulations to HPI Faculty member, Dr. Derek McKay for receiving an NSERC Discovery grant (2017-2022) “Host-parasites interactions as a model to define immunological regulatory pathways”.

Congratulations to HPI Collaborator, Amanda Melin for being presented with the American Society of Primatologists Early Career Achievement Award .

Congratulations to Anupama Ariyaratne, PhD student in Dr. Finney's lab for passing her candidacy exam.

Congratulations to Joel Bowron in the Finney lab for receiving his Masters degree.  The title of his thesis was: Phenotypic and Suppressive Analysis of Regulatory T Cell during Heligmosomoides polygyrus infection."  

Congratulations to Christina Amat in the Buret lab for receiving her PhD. The title of her thesis was: "The effects of Giardia duodenalis on the Intestinal Mucus Layer ."

Past News

• Congratulations to HPI Collaborator, Amanda Melin, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology for receiving the Excellence in Supervision Award from the Graduate Students' Association.  For the full story go to:http://www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2017-04-20/graduate-students-associa...

• Congratulations to Sarah Unrau in Dr. Cam Goater's lab at the University of Lethbridge for winning 1st place for her image in the graduate studies image contest at UofL.  Click on the link to see the image and the story: www.uleth.ca/graduate-studies/school-graduate-studies/our-students-exper...">http://www.uleth.ca/graduate-studies/school-graduate-studies/our-student...">

• Congratulations to HPI Collaborator Dr. Amanda Melin for receiving a Canadian Foundation for Innovation award. Dr. Melin's  research includes parasite-microbiome interactions and effects of short and long term climate change.  For the full story go to the www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2017-02-28/canada-foundation-innovation-fun...">http://www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2017-02-28/canada-foundation-innovat...">UToday article.
• Congratulations to Nidhi Sharma, PhD student in Dr. Gilleard's lab for passing her candidacy exam.
• Congratulation to Dave Curran in Drs. Wasmuth and Gilleard lab for receiving his PhD.  His thesis title is: "Design of Novel algorithms for Comparative Analysis of Complex Gene Families and their Application to Nematode Detoxification Pathways."
• Congratulations to Chelsea Matisz, PDF, HPI Alumni for receiving an AI-HS postgraduate fellowship for her new project at the University of Lethbridge, supervisor Dr. Aaron Bruber.  Her new project will be "The effect of a prevalent Albertan parasite on brain health."
• Congratulations to Shruti Srivastava in Drs. Wasmuth and Mckay lab for receiving her MSc.  Her thesis title is: "A bioinformatics analysis to identify parasite proteins that mimic host immune proteins.
• Congratulations to Chelsea Matisz in Drs. McKay and Sharkey's lab for receiving her PhD.  Her thesis title is:  "The adoptive transfer of helminth antigen-pulsed dendritic cells as a novel therapy for colitis." In addition, Chelsea's thesis was awarded the MDGI Program award for research excellence and had a paper accepted in Scientific Reports, entitled "Suppression of colitis by adoptive transfer of helminth antigen-treated dendritic cells requires interleukin-4 receptor-a signaling"....well done Chelsea!
• HPI faculty members, Dr. John Gilleard and Dr. Constance Finney are among a group of researchers at UofC that have received matching funding to support applying knowledge about parasitic worms in livestock to help understand the spread of the parasites in humans, their emerging drug resistance as well as look for new drugs to treat and control them.  This funding is within thehttp://ucalgary.ca/research/iicd"> Infections, Inflammation and Chronic Diseases in the Changing Environment university research theme.  
• Congratulations to HPI alum Bradley Von Paridon on the amazing achievement of contributing a guest blog to Scientific American! You can read his articlehttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/you-know-those-parasites-..."> here.
• Congratulations to Christina Amat (Buret lab) for receiving a University of Calgary Alumni Association Graduate Scholarship.
• Congratulations to Camila Meira (Gedamu lab) for receiving the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, Master's 2 year Scholarship.  
• Congratulations to Sydney Rudko (University of Alberta - Hanington lab) for receiving the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, 2 year Scholarship.  
• Congratulations to Michelle Gordy (University of Alberta - Hanington lab) for being appointed as PIE Student Executive Member for the Parasitism, Immunity, and Environment section of The Canadian Society of Zoologists. 
• Congratulations to Christina Amat, PhD student in Dr. Buret's lab for passing her candidacy exam.
• Congratulations to the www.ucalgary.ca/hpi/people/team-members/dr-andre-buret-biography">http://www.ucalgary.ca/hpi/people/team-members/dr-andre-buret-biography">Buret lab for having their research featured in www.nature.com/nature/journal/v533/n7603_supp/full/533S114a.html">http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v533/n7603_supp/full/533S114a.html">Nature!
• Congratulations to Chelsea Matisz, PhD candidate in Drs. McKay and Sharkey's lab who was awarded the best senior talk for the 2016 Joe Davison awards and for also being awarded the Dean's Doctoral Scholarship.
•  Russell Avramenko, HPI PhD student (Gilleard lab) is featured in UofC Alumni Magazine, Spring/Summer 2015 edition. 
• James Wasmuth's (HPI Faculty member) photo is feature in the Avenue Magazine.  The photo taken at “HPI AON, Party with Parasites".
• Congratulations to Christina Amat for receiving a graduate student poster display award in the Department of Biological Sciences 2016 Student Research Symposium.
• Congratulations to Pratap Kafle, PhD student in Dr. Kutz's lab for passing his candidacy exam.
• Congratulations to Michelle Gordy, PhD student in Dr. Hanington's lab for passing her candidacy exam.
• Congratulations to Ale Aleuy, PhD student in Dr. Kutz's lab for passing his candidacy exam.
• Congratulations to Russell Avramenko, PhD student in Dr. Gilleard's lab for passing his candidacy exam.
• Congratulations to Dr. James Wasmuth for receiving the Associate Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Supervision. For full article go to: http://vet.ucalgary.ca/home/news/ucvm-students-faculty-celebrated
• Congratulations to Dr. Susan Kutz for receiving the Zoetis Award for Research Excellence. For full article go to: http://vet.ucalgary.ca/home/news/ucvm-students-faculty-celebrated

• Announcing a new graduate course: Current topics in climate change and host-parasite interactions.

  This class will meet once a week for a three hour discussion group, and students (including auditors) will be expected to select appropriate literature to review and present. Grades for the course will be determined by a weekly discussion grade, as well as a final presentation and a final report. Email Dr. Susan Kutz for more details, but the class begins September 9 so hurry up!

• Congratulations to Steve Cornick for winning "Best Oral Presentation" at the 15th Annual Quebec Molecular Parasitology Symposium at McGill University; June 8-9, 2015.
• Congratulations to Michelle Gordy (Hanington lab) and Brad van Paridon (Gilleard lab) who co-won the Murray Fallis Prize for best talk in the Parasite, Immunology and Environment (PIE) section at CSZ 2015.
• Congratulations to Guilherme G. Verocai, MV, MSc, PhD, DipACVM (Parasitology), under the supervision of Dr. Susan Kutz for successfully defending his thesis: "Contributions to the biodiversity and biogeography of the genus Varestrongylus Bhalerao, 1932 (Nematoda: Protostrongylidae), lungworms of ungulates, with emphasis on a new Nearctic species."  Gui has relocated to Tampa Bay, Florida where he is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Global Health, University of South Flordia - College of Public Health. He will be working with Dr. Thomas Unnasch, Chair of the Department of Global health. To read the full article about Gui, go to: http://vet.ucalgary.ca/home/news/veterinary-researcher-fueled-passion-parasites.
• Congratulations to HPI trainee, Jeanie Quach (supervised by Dr. Kris Chadee) for passing her PhD candidacy exam!
• Congratulations to Oscar (Ale) Aleuy Young, PhD candidate (Kutz lab) for being awarded the Killam Scholarship.
• Congratulations to Steve Cornick, PhD candidate (Chadee lab) for being awarded the Alexander Graham Bell NSERC CGS Scholarship.
• Congratulations to Dr. James Wasmuth, HPI Faculty member for being awarded an NSERC discovery award.
• Congratulations to Teklu Gerbaba, alumni HPI member and PDF in Dr. Buret's lab on receiving acknowledgment of the ariticle "Giardia duodenalis-induced alterations of commensal bacteria kill Caenorhabditis elegans: a new model to study microbial-microbial interactions in the gut"; Teklu K. Gerbaba, Pratyush Gupta, Kevin Rioux, Dave Hansen, Andre G. Buret in The American Journal of Pysiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology  in being aknowledged by the American Physiological Society (APS) as an APSselect article, a collection from the APS that showcases some of the best recently published articles in physiological research

• The following HPI trainees presenting at the Alberta Parasite Immunology Symopium on March 5-6, 2015.  This symposium was hosted by Drs. Constance Finney, HPI faculty member and Stephanie Yanow, University of Alberta and sponsored by HPI.

  • Jeanie Quach, PhD Candidate (Chadee lab): "Entamoeba histolytica induces caspase-4 activation in macrophage pro-inflammatory responses."
  • Emmanuel Pila, PhD Candidate (Hanington lab): "Immunological determinants of snail-schistosome interactions."
  • Chelsea Matisz, PhD Candidate (McKay/Sharkey lab): "How I learned to stop worrying and love the worm: A novel treatment for colitis."
  • Jennifer Beatty, PhD HPI Alumni (Buret lab): The Impact of Giardia duodenalis on human intestinal microbiota biofilms: A role in chronic post-infectious gastrointestinal disease development?"
• Congratulations to Dr. Constance Finney, HPI Faculty member for being awarded Canada Foundation for Innovation funding.  Go to http://www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2015-01-21/overview-10-research-proj... for the full UToday article.
• Congratulations to Jean-Paul Motta, PDF (Dr. Andre Buret's lab) for being awarded a Eyes HIgh Postodoctoral Scholar award. Go to http://www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2015-01-27/fellowships-expand-horizo... for the full UToday article.
• Congratulations to Mani Lejeune, HPI Associate member (Dr. Susan Kutz lab) in passing the American College of Veterinary Microbiology (ACVM) Board Certification Examination.
• Congratulations to HPI trainee Brad van Paridon (supervised by Dr. John Gilleard) for passing his PhD candidacy exam!
• Congratulations to Gui Verocai, PhD Candidate (Dr. Susan Kutz lab) in passing the American College of Veterinary Microbiology (ACVM) Board Certification Examination, with a specialty in Veterinary Parasitology! Gui now has the title of Diplomate of the ACVM in Parasitology.
• Congratulations to Dave Curran (Drs. Gilleard and Wasmuth's lab) on being part of the Student iGEM team who represented the University of Calgary at the international competition in Boston (see UToday article).
• Congratulations to Steve Cornick (supervised by Dr. Kris Chadee) for passing his PhD candidacy exam!
• Congratulations to Dave Curran (supervised by Drs. James Wasmuth and John Gilleard) for passing his PhD candidacy exam!
• A warm welcome to the following students and post-doctoral fellows to the HPI group:
  • Josh Sullivan, MSc student - Dr. Susan Kutz
  • Ashley Schroeder, PhD student - Dr. Susan Kutz
  • Anja Carlsson, PDF - Dr. Susan Kutz
  • Janneke Wit, PDF - Dr. John Gilleard
  • Jean-Paul Motta, PDF - Dr. Andre Buret
  • Christiana Amat, MSc student - Dr. Andre Buret/Dr. Kris Chadee
  • Sharmin Begum, PhD student - Dr. Kris Chadee
  • Asel Murtatha, MSc student - Dr. Lash Gedamu
• John Gilleard and James Wasmuth featured on UToday and on the Veterinary Medicine Website
• KUTZ Lab at WAAVP Conference in Perth Australia.
• Congratulations to James Wasmuth and his family on the birth of Eloise Wasmuth! Best wishes from all of HPI!
• Remember to check out the U of C Student Success Centre's workshop events page   for the latest graduate level reading, writing and presentation skills workshops.  Many of them are offered from May 6th to May 9th with a few at the end of May.  Check out the entire Student Success Centre website for many helpful tips.
• Amol Bhargava from Dr. Buret's lab gave a poster presentation at the Experimental Biology Meeting in Bilogy in Boston titled, "Giardia duodenalis cysteine cathespin proteases and their role in intestinal disease"
• Jennifer Beatty from Dr. Buret's lab gave an oral presentation at the Experimental Biology Meeting in Bilogy in Boston titled "Gut microbiota biofilm disruptions by Giardia: Pathology in human enterocytes and germ-free mice".
• Dr. Andre Buret has wound up his first pilot project course focussed on integrated teaching and reasearch. Fro full details, see the article in UToday, April 15, 2013, describing the course, Diseases in a Changing World: Scoical, Economic and Medical Perspectives
• Dr. Tim Geary from McGill University gave a presentation as part of the Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine Seminar Series, titled, "Parasites Contribute to Cycle of Poverty --  One Health Strategy can break that cycle".
• Teklu Gerbaba, PDF in Dr. Andre Buret's lab was the winner in the NSERC CREATE HPI's logo competition.  Thanks and congratulations to Teklu for his creative logo entry.  Thanks also to all those who submitted an entry...they were all great!

• June 2019
• March 2019
• December 2018
• September 2018