Our next Parents of Parasites virtual coffee is almost here! ☕🍼
A chance to catch up and connect with fellow parents in academia.

📅 1 December
⏰ 10:30 AM (GMT)

👉 SPPIRIT members: check your inbox
👉 Non-members: DM or email us to join

Busy and exciting poster session @sppirit-network.bsky.social conference. SheinerLab's Anil and Victor spotted checking out some cool work!

3+ year #postdoc #job with Keith Matthews, in Edinburgh, studying #trypanosome virulence and transmission. Using a combination of bioinformatics and wet lab techniques.

Share wide and apply here: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

“Funding by the CDC for two monthly peer-reviewed journals, Emerging Infectious Diseases and Preventing Chronic Disease, will be cut.”

EID has published novel, important work that brings #IDSky issues to light. Its loss will hurt.

Good idea. Thank you for the tip, Bob!

@sppirit-network.bsky.social

1. TrypsClub Journal Club Registration We are pleased to invite you to the second BSP supported TrypsClub meeting! 2nd April, 2 pm (GMT) Our aim is to bring together ...

Next @bspparasitology.bsky.social TrypsClub Journal Club will take place online on 2nd April - all students, research assistants, postdocs and techs are welcome! Discussing a paper form the Mugnier lab group, featuring a Q&A with Moinca! Sign up here - tinyurl.com/5n6pme36

Funding for AIDS relief program to stop after foreign aid pause ordered The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, provides billions in funding to organizations to combat HIV.

Unconscionable

Perhaps the most disgusting announcement of a week full of disgusting announcements.

The impact PEPFAR has played in global fight against HIV/AIDS is a shining example of how investing in global health is in the national interest.

www.cbsnews.com/news/funding...

Our Jan issue highlights @sppirit-network.bsky.social connecting #Scottish #parasitology #ECRs, written by R. Edgar @jackhanna.bsky.social @marketanovotna.bsky.social @martacampillo.bsky.social @mukul1190.bsky.social @shikhas.bsky.social @vfrank.bsky.social & M.Ridgway
www.cell.com/trends/paras...

Do tissue-dwelling trypanosomes sustain transmission populations? Trypanosoma brucei infectious populations are marked by considerable diversity in the parasite’s major antigen, the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG). However, most parasites in the bloodstream are non-replicating, questioning how VSG diversity arises. Beaver et al. show that extravascular parasites in host tissues many explain this paradox and provide insight into trypanosome transmission.

Do tissue-dwelling trypanosomes sustain transmission populations? A hot off-the-press @cellpress.bsky.social spotlight article by Steve Larcombe, Jane Munday @janemunday.bsky.social and @rmc9z.bsky.social -- www.cell.com/trends/paras...

Hi everyone!
We are SPPIRIT, a Scottish ECR network created by a group of postdocs, research fellows, and PIs motivated to develop and strengthen the parasitology community in Scotland.
Follow us for research highlights, training opportunities, Workshops and much more!

Are you a parasitologist in Scotland?
Are you looking for ways to create a scientific community focused on ECRs in your area?
In this TrendsTalk, we explain how we have done it for the Scottish Parasitology Partnership in Research, Innovation and Training (SPPIRIT)!
www.cell.com/trends/paras...

New MRC-funded postdoc with me on comparative bacterial genomics/phylodynamics @roslininstitute.bsky.social university of Edinburgh. Great multidisciplinary team and collaboration with partners at Shanghai Jao Tong University.
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Please enjoy and share widely 😄 Our new paper, led by @goldrieve.bsky.social , details the mechanisms of lifecycle simplification in #trypanosomes.

Our new paper - led by Hend Abu-Elmakarem and Oscar MacLean - sheds light on #mutation dynamics and the challenges of using molecular clocks to date #malaria parasite #evolution.

Full link here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39570730/

Non-native English speakers need 50% more time to write a paper

When they do, they face a 2.5 times higher chance of being rejected because of language

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

We developed two systems of artificial bovine vasculature and we used them to study how trypanosome parasites attach to blood vessels.

#EID is a network of 900 infectious disease researchers across different institutes in Edinburgh.

Give them a follow to connect with global experts and their cutting edge science.

Edinburgh University warns staff to expect job cuts The institution blamed "unsustainable" funding and a fall in student numbers for the decision.

The neoliberal uni project is going well. Maybe if unis stopped spending money on status building projects, paying management inflated salaries & treating students as customers and the government was serious about properly funding unis we might not be in this situation.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Nuclear DNA replication in Leishmania major relies on a single constitutive origin per chromosome supplemented by thousands of stochastic initiation events Understanding genome duplication requires characterisation of the locations where DNA replication initiates, termed origins. Genome-wide mapping of DNA replication origins has mainly been derived from...

New preprint from others in the lab - Mapping origins of DNA replication in Leishmania.
Great work Jeziel, Gabriel, @marquescata.bsky.social, Marija, Craig, Dario and the boss!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Please circulate 💼 Post doc opportunity in York with Mathieu Cayla:

Interested in trypanosomes, and have a background in molecular/ cell biology, or microbiology? Then apply here to work with a great PI in a fantastic location: jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/post...

🚨🚨🚨paper alert!!!!!
Finally out!! Our small contribution to the trypanosomatids field!
Using UExM we explored the journey of Trypansoma cruzi inside the host cell

mdpi.com/2076-0817/13/1…
@carlos_robello @paraymicologia

Looking to connect with other researchers working on trypanosome and kinetoplastid biology? Then here's a started pack.

go.bsky.app/5TQRGZE

Please let me know if you'd like to be added, so we can grow this community.

Please share the advert, either on here or with your departments, if you’re able to 😊

Genuinely disappointing. The beauty of this database is it's accessibility and versatility.

Parasitologists up in arms as NIH ends funding for key database Trove of data-mining resources on malaria and other killers set to go dark this weekend

A huge blow to the global #parasitology research community. Baffled by the #NIH decision to end funding for such a valuable resource...

www.science.org/content/arti...

There's an mpox vaccine. Why is it taking so long to reach Africa? | Context Democratic Republic of Congo is desperate for mpox vaccines while some nations have stockpiles they may never need. Why the delay?

Why is it taking so long for #mpox vaccine to reach Africa?

In Context Newsroom Jimmy Whitworth discusses global vaccine inequity & says action urgently needed to tackle outbreak of 'lethal new variant'

#publichealth

👉 bit.ly/3AZaM4A

Not yet. But the keep doing incremental builds and fixes :)

Thanks Shaun. Looking forward to chatting to you about coinfections!