The 2022 Annual Meeting of the Irish Society for Parasitology was held in National University of Ireland Galway.

A hybrid event with 61 registered in person attendees and 22 virtual attendees, it was the first conference attended by many of the PhD students and they had a great experience. The Keynote speaker who presented virtually was Prof Conor Caffrey from  Skaggs School of Pharmacy UC San Diego who presented a talk entitled " The schistosome parasite: developing tools to aid drug discovery" .  The plenary speakers were Dr Nikki Walshe from University College Dublin Veterinary School whos talk entitled " From equine vet to wannabe parasitologist. An indirect lifecycle" was received with great interest from the audience and Dr Hannah Vineer from the University of Liverpool who delivered a talk on the second day of the conference entitled " Know your enemy: modelling to inform sustainable parasite control".  

Our conference speakers were from University of California, Queen’s University Belfast, University College Dublin, the National Museum of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Munster Technological University, Kano State Polytechnic Nigeria, National University of Ireland Galway, The University of Bath and The University of Lincoln. A number of travel awards for undergraduate and early career researchers sponsored by the Irish Society for Parasitology were awarded to conference delegates.

Previous meetings

2021

Due to the ongoing pandemic situation we moved online for our annual meeting, which took place on March 26th, 2021.

We were delighted to be joined by plenary speaker Professor Elizabeth Innes (Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh Scotland) who presented a talk titled  Toxoplasma gondii: The world's most successful parasite? 

Keynote speakers included Prof Russell Stothard (Liverpool University) and Prof Tom Kelly (University College Cork).

2019

Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), Northern Ireland.

JOHN GILLEARD, University of Calgary, Canada. Benzimidazole resistance in Haemonchus contortus.

The ‘Prof. William C. Campbell Award for PhD Candidates’ sponsored by Cambridge University Press (publishers of Parasitology) was awarded to Paula Tierney, then at Trinity College Dublin.

2018

Palace of the Academies, Brussels, Belgium (held jointly with BSPP, ISP, BAVP & EVPC).

GREG MATLASHEWSKI, McGill University, Canada.  CRISPR genome editing in Leishmania.

RICHARD WALL, University of Bristol. Tick and tick-borne diseases in the UK: the lessons from large scale surveillance studies.

GUY HENDRICKX, AviaGIS, Zoersel, Belgium. VecMap: bridging the gap between research and decision making.

JEREMY SALT, Galvmed, Edinburgh, UK. The Animal African Trypanosomosis (Tryps) Programme by GalvMed and the Gates foundation: how do we enable substantial and sustainable solutions for African farmers?

2016

Trinity College, Dublin

MARK TAYLOR, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.  Exploiting the symbiosis of Wolbachia and filarial nematodes for new treatments for lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis.

2015

Queen’s University, Belfast

PHILIP SKUCE, Moredun Research Institute. Anthelmintic resistance progress?

2014

University College Dublin

Joint meeting of the Irish Society for Parasitology, British Association for Veterinary Parasitology and the European Veterinary Parasitology College. Theme Parasite Vaccines – Are We There Yet? - with seven key-note presentations

JOHN DALTON. Fasciola hepatica vaccines? It’s been a bumpy, winding road with no clear signs!

THEO SCHETTERS. Vaccination against canine babesiosis

DAVID SMITH. Barbervax: potentially a new tool for the control of Barber’s Pole worm of sheep

MARSHALL LIGHTOWLERS. Recombinant anti-parasite vaccines that actually work: anti-cestode vaccines

FIONA TOMLEY. Advances in vaccination strategies for Dermanyssus gallinae

LUIGI GRADONI. Canine Leishmania vaccines: still a long way to go

RON HOKKE. Schistosoma vaccines

2013

Dublin City University, Dublin

PADRAIC FALLON, Trinity College, Dublin. Researching tropical parasitic helminths in Dublin: did you know Ireland is not in the tropics?

MARK ROBINSON, Queens University, Belfast. Helminth defence molecules - utility players in the host-parasite interaction

2012

Trinity College, Dublin

ERIC MORGAN, School of Biological Sciences, Bristol University. Climate change and parasites: hot air or a damp squib?

2009

Veterinary Research Laboratory, Backweston, Co. Kildare (with the BVA)

SARAH RANDOLPH, Dept of Zoology, Oxford University. Increasing tick-borne diseases: environmental and socioeconomic drivers

2008

University College Cork, Cork.

EILEEN HARRIS, Natural History Museum, London. Helminth parasites in stranded cetaceans

2007

Meeting with the British Society for Parasitology, Queens University Belfast

2006

Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Backweston, Celbridge, Co. Kildare.

NOEL MURPHY, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare.  Do African trypanosomes talk to each other?

2005

Ramada Hotel, Belfast (in association with SafeFood)

ANNE BURNELL, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare.  Gene discovery and transcriptomic analysis in insect parasitic nematodes

2004

Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Abbotstown, Dublin.

ANDY FORBES, Merial, UK. The effects of parasites on host behaviour

2003

Joint meeting with the British Association of Veterinary Parasitology, York   University

2002
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Belfield, UCD, Dublin.       

BERNARD LOSSON, University of Liège, Belgium. Echinococcus multilocularis in southern Belgium

2001
Trinity College, Dublin

RICHARD TINSLEY, Bristol University. Regulation of parasite infection levels: a case study based on monogeneans

2000

Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Abbotstown, Dublin.

PAUL DEAR, MRC Molecular Biology, Cambridge. Parasite genomes: don't worry, be happy.