• Question: Why did you choose to look into the DNA of parasites?

    Asked by emilycossens to Anouk on 22 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Anouk Gouvras

      Anouk Gouvras answered on 22 Jun 2012:


      Hi Emilycossens, finally my late reply. When I started my PhD, my supervisor and her team had just developed a practical and efficient way of collecting parasites samples from the field to use in genetic research. We decided to use these samples and looking at parasite DNA to monitor the efficiency of treatment programs and to use DNA to understand how parasite populations varied and what influenced them.
      So actually I don’t specialize in genes. I specialize in parasites. But I use genetic research techniques and information to learn more about the parasites, who they infect hosts, how they adapt to change etc and hot to use this information to help parasite control programs. Genetic techniques and information can be applied to so many different areas of research; medical, conservation, forensics, agriculture etc. Very useful knowledge!

      As to why parasites….they are awesome! So interesting. They have adapted to living INSIDE other animals, other hosts. The one I research, the schistosome, infects a mammal by going through its skin into the blood system. The blood system carries it all over the body till it gets to the liver, there it finds a partner and reproduces, the eggs come out through urine and stool and end up in a water body (like a lake) they hatch out and the little larvae travel to a snail. They infect a snail and the worm then multiplies over and over and over again until there are hundreds of little larvae coming out of the snail ready to infect another mammal. It amazes me that something like that, a life cycle like that exists and has evolved! It has been around for thousands of years, they even found it in ancient egyptian mummies. And its still around today. Its so sad that it causes so much damage to the children that become infected with it. SO I think I also like the fact that I can help with this. By researching this animal that I find so interesting I can also help programs that are trying to control it, stop people getting infected and treat people that are. So I feel that my interest and my work is useful to people. Also it means that I get to travel to a lot of places that I wouldn’t normally go, and I see what its like to live and work in some of the poorest communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

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