Emma Sands continues to do great work engaging the public with science in her new role with Scottish Water.

Click HERE to read more.

Grant, Sarah, Mattie, and Nicola Caldwell traveled to Philly in March for the First Biennial Cryptosporidium Meeting, hosting by Boris Striepen and Chris Hunter.

Our collaborators from the University of Arizona, Curtis Thorne and Briana Guzman joined us!

Grant gave a poster about his PhD project, Nicola spoke about the DDU’s Crypto KRS programme, Mattie talked about our recent publication from Jack Hanna’s PhD work, and Curtis spoke about our work to develop organoid models to study Cryptosporidium infection.

Our alumnus Simona Seizova was also present, and with all our collaborators and colleagues over the years. It was a fantastic meeting that left us all inspired to get back to the lab!

There’s a rumor that the next meeting may be held in the UK… so stay tuned…

Mattie, Grant, Sarah (and even Clark) attended the biannual UK Coccidia Day, this time held in Glasgow and organised by Clare Harding.

Grant and Sarah both gave Turbo Talks about their projects. And we really enjoyed hearing about all the exciting Coccidia work happening in the UK.

It was also so fun to see many of our lab alumni in attendance, including Jack, Ross, and Flora! Thankfully they are also experienced ceilidh professionals, so they were great partners for the end of day dancing.

The week after we enjoyed a Christmas lunch out, followed by bowling at the new bowling alley in Dundee!

Good wishes for a restful holiday break and starting the new year refreshed!

It was a very busy start to the new year…

We welcomed a new EastBio PhD student, Peyton Goddard, and a new Masters by Research Student, Lynn Wong! We look forward to seeing their research kick of this semester!

The second week back to work we welcomed a group of visitors from the Welcome Trust to the School of Life Sciences: Paul Schreier (Interim CEO), John-Arne Rottingen (newly appointed CEO), and Julia Gillard (Chair of the Board of Governors).

It was great to tell them a little about our work on Cryptosporidium. When we have visitors, I always bring along the acrylic stain-glass window Janice Aitken made of Cryptosporidium oocysts.

At the SLS Annual Review of the Year, it was announced that our new selection marker for Cryptosporidium genetic modification won runner-up for the “SLS Innovator of the Year” Award. Well done to the team, especially Jack and Simona!

The local Dundee SPPIRIT committee won the SLS People’s Award! Thanks to Melanie Ridgway for suggesting that we nominate the group and congrats to everyone in the team.

We are now the proud owners of this impressive trophy!

Mattie was an invited lunch speaker back in July 2023 at the local Dundee Rotary Club. She invited the group to come visit and tour the labs, and we were finally able to arrange this. It was great to meet and talk about how Dundee has changed over the years and how the work at the School of Life Sciences has impacted the city. Thanks to everyone for coming and spending the afternoon with us.

Thanks to Ali Floyd for giving a short tour of our WCAIR medicinal garden, despite the really bad weather and to members of the lab for joining in for a cup of tea.