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

 

Lieselotte Van Bockstal 

Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH),  

University of Antwerp, Belgium 

Lieselotte.vanbockstal@uantwerpen.be 

 

The BSP spring meeting is an annual convention held by the British Society for Parasitology. This year the BSP organized for the first time a joint meeting with the Belgian Society for Parasitology and Protistology (BSPP) and the Dutch Society for Parasitology (NVP) that took place in Manchester. The scientific 3-day program included oral and poster presentations covering topics related to host pathogen interactions, cell biology, ecology and ecosystems and human interventions.  

 

I was selected to present my poster entitled “Impaired development of miltefosine-resistant Leishmania infantum in the sand fly vectors Phlebotomus perniciosus and Lutzomyia longipalpis” in a pitch format during the cell biology session on the first day of the congress. We had three minutes to convince the audience to have a look at our poster. It was a great success, because after the poster pitches I received a lot of positive reactions about my results and had some interesting talks with fellow scientists. This work has now been submitted for publication. 

 

After my poster pitch presentation, I could enjoy the rest of the meeting in a more relaxed state. I attended the very interesting talk of Paul Kaye regarding the interaction of Leishmania parasites with Kupffer cells, which is a main topic in my PhD work. This conference was also a good opportunity for networking. We joined the conference dinner and participated to after-conference events (we finished second in the parasitology quiz!). Overall, it was a great experience to go with our whole “leishmaniac-team” to the Manchester Spring meeting. I am thankful for this international opportunity that Zoetis and BSPP gave me and I would like to encourage other PhD students to apply for this travel grant. 

 

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.