Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · 14d

😱

Veeloxxy Bites @the-episiarch.bsky.social · 14d

Sometimes, parasitologists have to put their own body on the line in the name of science. In this case, a parasitologist played host to a nose leech for over a month to find out more about its life history 🧪
#Invertebrate
dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2019/10/dino...

Dinobdella ferox

When it comes to parasitology, sometimes you have to get really up close with your study organism, as one researcher in Taiwan did in trying...

dailyparasite.blogspot.com

Reposted by John Gilleard

Brilliant Maps @brilliantmaps.bsky.social · Aug 13

Nematodes Per 100g Of Dry Soil

For every human on earth there are 60 billion nematodes living in the soil

brilliantmaps.com/nematodes...

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Adam Hayward @adhayward.bsky.social · Aug 12

Absolute pleasure to be involved in this review article on sustainable parasite control in ruminants. Full of lovely stuff on vaccines, nutrition, genetics, grazing and biological control! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · Jul 12

When my dad was born (~1950) only one third of the global population was literate. When I was born (~1980) already two thirds of all humans were literate. When my sons were born (~2020) around 87 per cent of the global population was literate. That's human progress in action. Source: buff.ly/exODbs8

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Reposted by John Gilleard

The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · Jul 10

Scientists have followed unwritten guidelines for their conduct for hundreds of years. These norms aren’t enforced by any law, but they act as guiding principles for science and reasons it should be trusted.

The 6 principles, from universalism to humility. theconversation.com/scientific-n...

Scientific norms shape the behavior of researchers working for the greater good

While rarely explicitly taught to scientists in training, a set of common values guides science in the quest to advance knowledge while being ethical and trustworthy.

theconversation.com

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Jul 4

Awesome! Congrats!

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Nic Wheeler @wheelerlab.bio · Jul 3

Very excited and proud to release a project that I’ve been thinking about for at least 7 years, well before I started my faculty position. We built an imaging and computational platform from the ground up to help answer some outstanding questions in schistosome miracidia biology.

Quantitative ethology of schistosome miracidia characterizes a conserved snail peptide that inhibits penetration

Over 700 million people are at risk of contracting schistosomiasis due to regular exposure to freshwater sources where infected snails, the obligate intermediate hosts of schistosomes, are endemic. Al...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Dr Ellie Murray, ScD @epiellie.bsky.social · Jun 29

My hot take on Jeff Bezos' wedding: That $50 million price tag is double what the US government was spending annually on food and medicine for 5 million AIDS orphans before the Trump administration canceled it.

We are literally letting orphans die rather than make this guy pay taxes.

Wedding photo of Jeff Bezos and his new wife

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · May 2

Nice. Happy birthday Mostafa 🥳

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Noam Ross @noamross.net · Apr 30

UPDATE: We have data on >1000 terminated #NSF grants at grant-watch.us. Thanks to all who have been contributing data the past few days.

We've also added a "Reports" section with some analyses. For NSF, we see that the STEM education directorate has been absolutely pummeled.

Screenshot of table showing number of grants and total value terminated by NSF directorate. STEM Education directorate is highlighted, with 417 terminations totaling 322 million dollars.

CSV of table:
Directorate,No. Terminated,Total Value
Biological Sciences,46,"$27,960,075"
Computer and Information Science and Engineering,85,"$44,630,113"
Engineering,94,"$33,472,485"
Geosciences,52,"$36,454,740"
Mathematical and Physical Sciences,30,"$6,418,312"
Office of the Director,7,"$4,859,738"
STEM Education,417,"$322,680,063"
"Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences",266,"$77,635,904"
"Technology, Innovation and Partnerships",46,"$62,231,309"

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Apr 28

This: youtu.be/0Qk4FBS73Ts?...

Fareed’s Take: Trump is gutting what made American science great

YouTube video by CNN

youtu.be

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Johns Hopkins University @jhu.edu · Apr 16

Did you know? 99% of all new medications resulted from federally-funded university research through #NIH

Learn more about #ResearchSavesLives: hub.jhu.edu/research-sav....

An image with a prescription pill bottle. Text on the image reads: 99% of all new medications resulted from federally-funded university research through NIH

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · Apr 9

Bluesky has overtaken its flailing rival X in hosting posts related to new academic research, indicating the platform is fast becoming the go-to place for scholars to share their work

#AcademicSky #EduSky

X’s dominance ‘over’ as Bluesky becomes new hub for research

Data indicates more scholars turning to alternative social media site to post about their work after Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Jocelyn Poissant @jocelynpoissant.bsky.social · Mar 29

New @sihorses.bsky.social publication by @mstothart.bsky.social on the toxicity of Beach Pea on Sable Island doi.org/10.22621/cfn...

Little evidence that Beach Pea (Lathyrus japonicus) toxins cause gait abnormalities in Sable Island Feral Horse (Equus ferus caballus) | The Canadian Field-Naturalist

doi.org

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Michael Hendricks 🇨🇦 @michaelhendricks.bsky.social · Mar 29

"biology tends to quickly humble the computer people"

www.wired.com/story/openwo...

The Worm That No Computer Scientist Can Crack

One of the simplest, most over-studied organisms in the world is the C. elegans nematode. For 13 years, a project called OpenWorm has tried—and utterly failed—to simulate it.

www.wired.com

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Feb 28

Many congratulations to Faculty of Veterinary Medicine’s own Rachael Coon on winning the university of Calgary postdoc slam!! Great work!! www.ucalgary.ca/news/three-m...

Three minutes, endless impact: UCalgary’s Postdoc Research Slam celebrates innovation and storytelling

Annual postdoc competition highlights groundbreaking research – from sustainable innovation to medical breakthroughs – while fostering community among postdoc scholars.

www.ucalgary.ca

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Reposted by John Gilleard

Keith Matthews @keithrmatthews.bsky.social · Jan 8

How SPPIRIT is transforming early career profiles in Parasitology in Scotland

www.cell.com/action/showP...

www.cell.com

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Jan 8

Thanks Janet!

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Jan 8

T. incognita could be a concern for MDA programs using ALB/IVM & more surveillance needed to determine T. incognita geographic distribution and Tx responsiveness. Also see upcoming paper from Keiser group on genomic characterization of T. incognita

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Jan 8

Mitogenome from 8 adult Trichuris worms from Cote D'Ivoire confirmed species-level differentiation. Genbank seqs from human patients in Cameroon and Uganda and 3 captive non-human primates suggest this novel species - T. incognita- occurs beyond Cote D'Ivoire and has zoonotic potential.

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Jan 8

Fecal metabarcoding on clinical trial patients in Cote D'Ivoire with poor response of Trichuris infections to ALB/IVM combination therapy showed entire Trichuris population detected was phylogenetically distinct from T. trichiura & more closely related to T. suis.

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Jan 8

see lay summary at ucalgary.ca/news/ucalgar...

UCalgary researchers identify new human parasite species resistant to current drug treatments

One Health research in Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has important implications for parasite control programs in low-income countries

ucalgary.ca

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Jan 8

Our paper describing a new STH species Trichuris incognita which is resistant to albendazole-ivermectin combination therapy is out in Emerging Infectious Diseases wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/... Great work Abhinaya Venkatesan & collaborators @jsoghigian.bsky.social , Jennifer Keiser and team.

Photo credit Deo Ruganuza - field sampling

Photo credit : Mani Lejeune. Trichuris egg

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Dec 18

Festive potluck lab lunch and opportunity for team photo ! An awesome group and a pleasure to work with👏🎉

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John Gilleard @johngilleard.bsky.social · Dec 14

Ain’t going to happen