By Mike Moser
The Northern California Parasitologists held a virtual 2021 Spring Meeting on May 1. This virtual meeting was shared with the Southern California Society of Parasitologists, the Southern California Academy of Sciences and colleagues in Mexico and the Middle East. We welcome our international colleagues to share with us their comments and research interests.
Our guest speakers were Roland Gosling, PhD, MD and Allison Tatarsky, BS, MPH, Global Health Group, University of California, San Francisco. The title of their presentation was “Malaria research in Africa and the Malaria Elimination Initiative and Action Tank model”.
The speakers in the Student Competition were:
1) Sharon I Brummitt,“Assessment of physician knowledge, attitudes, and practice for Lyme disease in a low endemic state.”, Graduate Group in Epidemiology, University of California, Davis,
2) Sophie Zhu, “Oocysts, oceans, and otters: Toxoplasma gondii in feral cats.”, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, & Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis,
3) Kyle Yomogida,“Assessing relationships between human R. typhi infections and environmental variables.”, CDPH and Vector-borne Disease Section, Graduate Group in Epidemiology, University of California, Davis,
4) Aoife Nora Galvin,“Little Effect of Blood Parasites on Avian Movement Patterns.”, Biology Department, San Francisco State University,
5) Emry Cohenour, “Does mic 18 contribute to bradyzoite-specific virulence of Toxoplasma gondii.”, Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, East Bay,
6) Avraj Bal, “Understanding Transcriptional Regulation of Toxoplasma gondii Developmental Differentiation and Virulence.”, Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, East Bay,
7) Marie Victoria Lilly, ”Are birds an understudied host in Borrelia burgdorferi transmission on the West Coast?”, Biology Department, San Francisco State University,
8) Edres Babacarkhial, “Contribution of Developmentally Regulated Metabolic Enzymes to Stage Conversion During Toxoplasma Pathogenesis.”, Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, East Bay,
9) Grace Shaw, “The influence of complex patch dynamics on Lyme disease ecology in the western United States.”, Biology Department, San Francisco State University
Awards:
First Place - Marie Victoria Lilly
Second Place - Sophie Zhu
Honorable Mention - Edres Babacarkhial