Written by William Branchett
Edited by John Mackey
IRD recently hosted Dr Coralie Martin from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, who led a seminar and Journal Club on her research of the dynamics of filarial parasite infection. Filariae are nematodes that can cause debilitating and disfiguring diseases such as river blindness, which affects around 37 million people in Africa. Dr Martin utilises the rodent filarial parasite Litomosoides (L.) sigmodontis in mouse models to identify novel strategies for intervention in filarial infection.
In her seminar, Dr Martin focused on the life cycle of L. sigmodontis, which begins by intradermal delivery of larvae via an insect bite.