Join our online ASP Seminar Series Friday 11th August 2023, 1pm AEST, featuring Doris Pierce, James Cook University, presenting “Experimental hookworm infection in humans with metabolic disease: A Phase 1b trial” and Gemma Zerna, LaTrobe University, presenting “Enhancing Liver Fluke Therapeutic Efficacy Through Vaccine Formulation” with co-chairs Jill Chmielewski, University of Adelaide, and Stuart Ralph, University of Melbourne. Our seminar will take place online via Zoom on Friday 11th August at 1pm AEST.
Please register online using
this link for your unique passcode to join the seminar.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Doris completed a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science (Hons) at JCU, with her Honours project investigating the effect of different exercise modes on acute arterial stiffness responses, an indicator of future cardiovascular disease. Changing direction, her PhD (also with JCU) revolved around the Worms and Metabolism (WAM) clinical trial that proposed an innovative approach to diabetes prevention, using human hookworms to improve insulin resistance in humans with metabolic disease. Doris found the idea that something so maligned as intestinal parasites could turn out as a possible prevention of one of today’s most insidious diseases fascinating and is very grateful her supervisors gave her the chance to be involved in this project, given her very different undergraduate background. Some of you may have heard Doris talk about this trial’s protocol during the 2018 ASP conference in Melbourne, and today, Doris will present some results.
Gemma has recently completed her PhD project that aimed to develop a vaccine to negate the effects of liver fluke, an internal parasite that reduces welfare and the production of cattle, sheep and goats. Her key PhD focus was on vaccine formulation and developing novel ways to deliver parasite antigens to the host immune system to stimulate an optimal response.
Gemma is now a Postdoc scientist with a similar research focus on improving animal health via vaccine development and investigating immune system pathways. Improving animal health and on-farm productivity is a major interest and she has been able to pursue this passion within the Beddoe and Spithill laboratories, which focus on livestock-pathogen interactions and biochemistry in the Department of Animal, Plant and Soil Science within the Centre of Agribiosciences (AgriBio).
Alongside my scientific research Gemma is also Subject Coordinator for Animal Science subjects delivered at La Trobe University.
Our ASP Online Seminar Series image is created by Thorey Jonsdottir.
