Research Fellow

Department of Environment and Genetics

School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment

La Trobe University | Bundoora VIC 3086

Nematode parasites are responsible for a wide variety of diseases in humans and in wild, domestic, and companion animals. Risks of severe disease outcomes come from the possibility of host switches from wild animals to domestic animals or people, from the introduction of disease from one area to another when hosts migrate, and from the evolution of resistance to the drugs used for control or treatment. We use genomics, bioinformatic, and modeling approaches to study the ecology and evolution of nematode parasites and the vectors that transmit them. We are interested in questions such as how landscape ecology, host migration, host switching, and management decisions affect a parasite species’ genetic diversity, and how that in turn affects important characteristics such as a parasite's response to drugs or the severity of the pathology they cause.

The lab’s vision is to provide tools to aid in the elimination of parasitic diseases that are a public health threat, and to provide training for students and for workers in endemic countries to support the global use and development of these tools.