Molecular Parasitology of WildlifeModernizing & connecting for impactTo modernize our ability to identify, track, and understand host-parasite interactions in wildlife, the Kartzinel Lab has established transdisciplinary partnerships involving traditional parasitologists, molecular biologists, and conservation veterinarians in the field. We are launching HelmBank, an online repository of parasite DNA barcodes obtained from wildlife hosts across the tropical Americas. Together with data scientists, we are connecting our results with other publicly available data to improve how effectively parasites from diverse host taxa and geographies can be detected using DNA. In our first year of this effort, we have uncovered a surprising number of new host records, parasite species, and even entirely new parasite lineages from wildlife including sloths, tapirs, peccaries, armadillos, anteaters, and many more!
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Wildlife veterinarian Ezequiel Vanderhoeven checks the health of a two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica |
HelmBank
Launching in AY25-26
Success in the emerging field of molecular parasitology in wildlife requires access to expert-verified reference datasets appropriate for the species and regions of interest. No such dataset exists today.
We are rolling out a unified set of protocols and datasets aimed at modernizing wildlife parasitology. We call the effort HelmBank, which we envision as a hub for future research on helminth parasites that interact with -- and occasionally harm -- humans, livestock, and wildlife around the world.
We are rolling out a unified set of protocols and datasets aimed at modernizing wildlife parasitology. We call the effort HelmBank, which we envision as a hub for future research on helminth parasites that interact with -- and occasionally harm -- humans, livestock, and wildlife around the world.