Lab News and Updates

Jul 2025      Work on orotopical bat rabies vaccine led by Cole Knuese profiled in Science Magazine.

Jun 2025      Congrats to Clair Henthorn for completing her PhD! Clair is now a Scientist at PPD (Thermo Fisher).

Jun 2024      Katie and Natalia presented at AAVP in St. Louis. Katie won the Best Student Oral Presentation Award!

Sep 2024      Natalia Betancourt joins the lab as a PhD student through the CBMS program.

Jul 2024      Clair, Elena, and Katie presented talks and posters at the AAVP Meeting in Atlanta and took home presentation awards.

Aug 2023      Kendra has successfully defended her PhD and will be starting a postdoc at UC-Berkeley. Congrats Dr. Dahmer!

Jul 2023      New paper on Mansonella diagnostics and epidemiology in the Colombian Amazon.

Jun 2023      The lab helped host and presented a number of posters at Mol Helm 2023 in Madison.

Apr 2023      Two new preprints resulting from Elena Rehborg and Lenny Nunn’s undergrad projects.

Mar 2023      Welcome to GHI Postdoctoral Fellow Sebastián Díaz! Sebastian will be stationed in Medellin, Colombia.

Sep 2022      New preprint led by Clair using a single-cell atlas to investigate secretory behaviors and drug targets!

Sep 2022      New preprint led by Kendra on muscarinic receptors as anthelmintic targets.

Aug 2022      Monica joins us as a GHI Visiting Scholar!

Aug 2022      Kendra, Clair, and Katie presented their work at the Midwest Neglected Infectious Disease Meeting at Notre Dame.

Jul 2022      New preprint led by Nic on multivariate screening for macrofilaricide discovery.

May 2022      New preprint and software package for image-based phenotyping of parasites.

Apr 2022      Dr. Monica Palma-Cuero is awarded a GHI Visiting Scholar award!

Apr 2022      Spatial transcriptomics paper appears in PLoS Pathogens.

Jan 2022      Nic Wheeler has accepted an Assistant Professor position at UW-Eau Claire starting in the Fall!

Oct 2021      JB Collins joins us as a postdoc on an anthelmintic resistance project jointly mentored through Northwestern University.

Aug 2021      Read our new preprint on spatial transcriptomics and antiparasitic target prioritization in a human filarial parasite.

Jun 2021      Opinion piece on high-content anthelmintic screening now out in Trends in Parasitology.

Mar 2021      Kendra receives an Honorable Mention for the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship!

Dec 2020      Nic awarded an NIH F32 fellowship to study parasite sensory behaviors!

Dec 2020      Katie Ryan joins our lab as a PhD student through the CMP program. Welcome Katie!

Dec 2020      Collaboration on ivermectin modulation of parasite vesicle release appears in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles.

Nov 2020      Filarial long-read RNAseq paper appears in PLOS NTD.

Nov 2020      Kendra, Nic, and Mostafa present posters and talks at the 2020 ASTMH Annual Meeting.

Jun 2020      Preprint on long-read RNA-Seq in human and animal filarial parasites now online!

Jun 2020      Paper on sensory behaviors of parasites that cause lymphatic filariasis in press at PLoS Biology

May 2020      The lab receives Global Health Institute grant to study filarial parasites infecting indigenous populations in Amazonia

May 2020      Elena receives Honorable Mention for the UW Sophomore Research Fellowship!

Mar 2020      Clair Henthorn joins us as a CBMS PhD student!

Feb 2020      The lab receives NIH/NIAID R01 to study parasite secretory function and new strategies to disrupt host-parasite interactions!

Dec 2019      Review on schistosome vector control & gene drive potential is published

Sep 2019      Paul presents poster and talk at the BSP / ISP joint meeting in Belfast; won 1st place poster prize!

Sep 2019      Kendra is appointed to the NIH PVB T32 training grant!

Sep 2019      Nic will be giving an invited talk at the PacBio North America User Group Meeting

Jun 2019      New preprint on filarial chemosensory biology available on bioRxiv!

Jun 2019      We wish our first cohort of lab undergrads success in their journeys ahead! Eric Chen (NIH IRTA Fellow), Alexis Mann (PhD, Johns Hopkins), Katie Kudrna (DVM, UW-Madison)

May 2019      Nathalie Dinguirard joins us from the Yoshino Lab as a joint research specialist

Apr 2019      Eric, Tran, and Katie present posters at UW Undergraduate Research Symposium

Apr 2019      Kendra receives 2019 NSF GRFP Honorable Mention

Feb 2019      The lab is excited to share our latest work at the upcoming Molecular Helminthology and WAAVP 2019 meetings

Oct 2018      Large-scale helminth genomics effort appears in Nature Genetics. Our lab contributed primary analyses of potentially druggable GPCRs and ion channels

Sep 2018      New preprint with Bartholomay & Kimber labs on chemosensation in filarial parasites

Sep 2018      Kendra joins the lab as a CBMS PhD student. Abdi, Gabi, and Nick join us as undergrad researchers

Sep 2018      Collaboration on the Bge cell line is published

Aug 2018      Nic presents at the 15th International Symposium on Schistosomiasis in Rio de Janeiro

Jul 2018      Zach joins the lab as a research intern!

Jul 2018      Paul Airs joins the lab as a Postdoc!

May 2018      Kathy Vaccaro joins the lab as a Research Specialist!

Apr 2018      Paper on stage and sex-specific differences in Brugia exosome cargo in press at PLoS NTD

Apr 2018      Benzimidazole paper appears in PLoS NTD

Dec 2017      Lab contributes to BioRxiv preprint on comparative genomics of major helminths

Oct 2017      BioRxiv preprint on the discovery of genetic loci underlying benzimidazole resistance

Oct 2017      Lab receives funding from NCVP / AHS

Aug 2017      Alexis joins the lab as an Honorary Research Fellow

Aug 2017      Contribution to Nature Communications paper on the genetics of a phoretic behavior

May 2017      Nic joins the lab as a Merck KGaA Postdoc Fellow

May 2017      Justice joins the lab as an Undergrad Lab Assistant

Mar 2017      Lab receives NIH/NIAID K22 Phase II Award

Feb 2017      Divyaa joins the lab as a joint Research Intern

Feb 2017      Eric joins as an Undergraduate Researcher

Feb 2017      Troy joins the lab as a Research Specialist

Jan 2017      The lab officially opens!