Hello all, I'ts been a while, but I hope that you've been updating yourself through various networks, social media platforms, and what not. Importantly, please mark your calendar for the 4th International Blastocystis Conference in Crete on the 18-19 September, 2024. Moreover, on the day before the conference (17th of September 2024) we will organise two parallel workshops, one on the Epidemiology of Blastocystis (Working Group 1 of the COST Action) and the other one on subtyping (Working Group 2 of the COST Action). You can find more info on the conference here. And more about the COST action ..read more

For quite a while, I have had the undiluted pleasure of working with Prof Mark van der Giezen, who is currently based at the University of Stavanger.  Mark is a PI on a large grant from the Norwegian Research Council, and I will be co-supervising one of the projects, which is the following:  "PhD Fellowship in Intestinal Microbiome Analysis and Parasites as Health and Disease Biomarkers" There will, of course, be special emphasis on Blastocystis, but we will also be looking at other common intestinal parasites, and the relationship between these and core host gut microbiota signature ..read more

Hi all, Exciting times ahead! The first training school of our Action will take place between the 30th of May until 1st of June 2023 at the National University of Singapore. Thanks to Dr. Kevin Tan for organising this. You can find more information here and register to attend the meeting my completing the form here. Our Action will support 14-15 trainees to attend the Training School. To apply for a financial support to attend this training school you will need to complete the form below no latter than the 10th of March 2023. Due to the tight timeline and quick turnover, we won’t consid ..read more

Hello everyone, Service update: I've had a couple of people asking me where to fetch a curated collection of reference SSU rDNA sequences of Blastocystis (and Entamoeba). Please go here! Have fun! Maybe this is also an opportunity for me to encourage participation in the Blastocystis COST network; for more information on this, please go here. Soon, there will be a designated website for the activities. R   ..read more

 Message from Tasos: Dear Blastocystis colleagues and enthusiasts, I would like to remind you that the 3rd International Blastocystis Conference (http://blastocystis2021.com ) will take place virtually between 2nd to 4th of June 2021  We have extended the abstract submission deadline until the 30th of April  (http://blastocystis2021.com/abstract-guidelines/)!  Please note that the early-bird registration deadline remains the same and is approaching soon (tomorrow): April 15th, 2021 (http://blastocystis2021.com/registration/).  Participants from LMICs wi ..read more

Hi Everyone, and a very Happy New Year! Please note that abstract submission and registration for the 3rd International Blastocystis Conference (virtual, 2nd to 4th of June) is now OPEN! Click here to register and share your Blastocystis research! We have registration fees as low as € 15 for early birds! For Twitter users, please also follow @Blastocystis21 for updates. Our website is now live along with the abstract submission for the next #Blastocystis Conference! Spread the word! 145 days to go ... @Blastocystis #protists #abstractsubmission #Blastocystis21 https://t.co/T3mX9bv4Jf — Blast ..read more

Hello! I would like to draw your attention to updates on the 3rd International Blastocystis Conference, which is very much ON, although in the virtual format. Please go here for information. I really hope that you will support the conference by your presence and active participation! "Even though we wanted to see you in person in the beautiful Chania next year, we have decided for everyone’s safety to convert the 3rd International Blastocystis Conference into a virtual conference. The conference will take place between 2nd and 4th of June 2021 and we will make sure that it will also be tailor ..read more

Back in 2006, when we came up with the subtype terminology for Blastocystis, the spectrum of and boundaries between Blastocystis subtypes were quite clear and distinct. Since then, the genetic make-up of Blastocystis has appeared to be an even bigger universe than we (or at least I) expected, and we may be far from having explored the entire 'galaxy' yet. New technologies make it easier to sequence DNA, and sequences attributed to Blastocystis are accumulating in the publicly available databases with great speed. While this situation is one of the things that stimulate research (genetic diver ..read more

 I HAVE to post this! Fully #funded #PhD #studentship in #intestinal #microbiology as part of a large interdisciplinary @forskningsradet funded study into the role of #microbial #eukaryotes and #inflammatory #bowel #disease (#IBD) in #Norway.https://t.co/T44t5ATmqB#AcademicTwitter @UniStavanger — Mark van der Giezen (@MitoRem) September 20, 2022 This PhD position is one of more that are linked to the project "The Role of Blastocystis in inflammatory bowel disease". If you or somebody you know share our interests in the interplay between common eukaryotic endosymbionts, gut bacteria and ..read more

Billions of people host single-celled intestinal parasites, but what do we really know about these organisms and the way they impact our lives? Register virtually/on-site for #ICOPA2022 to learn more on this and go here for more inspiration. Note that registration is still possible, and that one can register for on-site or virtual attendance. Please spread the word! ???????????????????????????????  https://icopa2022.org/   ..read more