BSP/BSPP/NVP Spring Meeting, Manchester, UK, 15-17 April 2019 

 

Dorien Mabille

Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH),  

University of Antwerp, Belgium 

 

The BSP spring meeting is a yearly event gathering scientists in the broad field of parasitology ranging from helminths to protozoa. This year’s meeting was held at the University of Manchester and was, for the first time, a joint event together with the Belgian Society of Parasitology and Protistology (BSPP) and the Dutch Society for Parasitology (NVP). As a member of the BSPP this was an excellent opportunity to get to know researchers form the other parasitological societies. The three-day scientific program included four main topics; cell biology, ecology and ecosystems, human interventions and host-pathogen interactions. As many of the presentations were run in parallel, the only difficulty of this meeting was choosing which one was the most interesting. My PhD project includes both topics on early immune responses upon an infection with African Trypanosomes and the development and mode of action of novel antitrypanosomal compounds, so I mainly attended the sessions on human intervention, cell biology and host-pathogen interactions.

I was selected to give an oral presentation entitled; “Assessing the role of neutrophils in vector-transmitted Trypanosoma brucei infections”. It was my first oral presentation regarding the immunoparasitological part of my PhD project and I was very excited (and nervous) to get feedback from fellow scientists in this field of research. During the rest of the conference, I was able to attend many keynote lectures and short presentation on African Trypanosomes, a parasite which was well-represented at this meeting. I especially liked the presentations of Philippe Bastin on the flagellum length control during the trypanosome life cycle and the one of Markus Engstler on the development of tsetse-transmitted trypanosomes in advanced human skin tissue models.

Finally, I would like to thank the BSPP for awarding me this travel grant. This conference was an excellent opportunity to broaden my knowledge on African Trypanosomes and interact and get feedback from other researchers.

News

Mathieu Claes was awarded the Avia-GIS award for the best oral presentation at the BSPP meeting on 11th November 2022 in Leuven.

Title of the presentation:IL-27 IN AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMES: A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD IN PARASITE CONTROL.

The 2022 Zoetis travel Grant was awarded to Georgios Petrellis (ULiege) to attend the "Parasitic Helminths: New Perspectives in Biology and Infection conference (Hydra, Greece)". 

Leen Vandermosten (KUL) won the 2022 art competition.

Two 2021 Zoetis travel Grants were awarded to Laura Dirkx (UA) and Senne Heere (ITM) both to attend the WorldLeish7 conference in Cartagena, Colombia (1-6 August, 2022). Read about Senne's and Laura's experience here.

 

Ganna Saelens (UGent) was awarded the Avia-GIS award for the best oral presentation at the BSPP meeting on 30th November 2021 in Antwerp.

Title of the presentation:

Transmissibility of anisakidae allergenic peptides from animal feed to chicken meat.

Katlijn De Meulenaere (ITM) was awarded the BSPP award for the best oral presentation at the BSPP meeting on 30th November 2021 in Antwerp.

Title of the presentation:

p. vivax schizont transcriptomes reveal pvtrag variation linked to band 3-mediated invasion in invasion assays.

Emilie Pollenus (KULeuven) was awarded the Huvepharma award for the best poster presentation at the BSPP meeting on 30th November 2021 in Antwerp.

Title of the presentation:

classical nk cells are important in the resolution of experimental malaria-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Dont' forget to register for the BSPP 2021 scientific meeting on 

Tuesday 30th November 2021. The meeting venue will be at campus “klooster van de Grauwzusters” (Lange Sint-Annastraat 7, 2000 Antwerpen), at walking distance from Antwerp Central station. Registration and abstract submission can be done at https://www.bspp.be/bspp-meetings/2021-in-antwerp/

The 2019 BSPP travel Grant was awarded to Dorien Mabille Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH) to attend the BSP/BSPP/NVP Spring Meeting in Manchester, UK, 15-17 April 2019. Read about her experience here.

The 2019 Avia-Gis travel Grant was awarded to Dimitri Bulte Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH) to attend the BSP/BSPP/NVP Spring Meeting in Manchester, UK, 15-17 April 2019. Read about his experience here.

The 2019 Zoetis travel Grant was awarded to Lieselotte Van Bockstal Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH) to attend the BSP/BSPP/NVP Spring Meeting in Manchester, UK, 15-17 April 2019. Read about her experience here.

Internist-infectioloog Meta Roestenberg van het Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (LUMC) ontvangt de Boehringer-Ingelheim prijs voor haar onderzoek in de translationele parasitologie. Roestenberg werkt aan experimentele klinische studies die moeten leiden tot een snellere en goedkopere ontwikkeling van nieuwe medicijnen en vaccins. More info.

The 2018 Zoetis travel Grant was awarded to Irina Matetovici  (Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp) to attend the The European Congress of Entomology  (Naples,Italy), 2-6 July, 2018. Read about her experience here.

Guy Caljon (University of Antwerp) received the Merial Award on 18 May 2017 in Utrecht for his work on insect-transmitted parasitic infections. More info.

Eline Eberhardt (University of Antwerp) was awarded the Avia-GIS award for the best presentation at the Joint spring meeting of the Belgian Society of Parasitology & Protistology (BSPP) and the Netherlands Society of Parasitology (NVP) on 20th May 2016.

Title of the presentation: Molecular detection of infection homogeneity and impact of miltefosine treatment in a Syrian Golden hamster model of Leishmania donovani  and L. infantum visceral leishmaniasis. 

The 2017 Zoetis travel Grant was awarded to Franck Dumetz (Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp) to attend the WorldLeish6 conference, Toledo (Spain), May 16-20, 2017.

Read about his experience here.