Parasite biology with Cecilia Trani

​Profile: Cecilia Trani Launches a Cross-Continental Parasite Sleuthing Mission to Map the Parasitic Helminths of Atlantic Forest Felids

When parasite biologist Cecilia Trani stands beside a muddy highway in Misiones, the body of every cat she recovers—whether a jaguar, ocelot, or neighborhood pet—becomes a clue to the hidden web of helminths linking the Atlantic Forest with our own backyards. This year she is transforming those clues into a cross-continental campaign that unites Argentina’s Subtropical Biology Institute, Brown University, and a grassroots network of rangers and veterinarians. The whole region is watching 🤩​

Cecilia Trani supervising the capture and handling of a coati for parasite surveillance at HelmCamp in Argentina

​Celebrating the Start of a Major Expedition

The Atlantic Forest of Misiones, Argentina is the target of Ph.D. candidate Cecilia Trani's latest endeavor. This new project is launching from Argentina's Subtropical Biology Institute with a graduate fellowship from the nation's top scientific funder (CONICET). The goal is to fuse classical parasite taxonomy with emerging DNA technologies to illuminate the helminths circulating between wild felids and their domestic counterparts. We call this approach Molecular Parasitology, and it is an exciting new area for international research and collaboration.

Cecilia spent the past several years honing her field necropsy skills in collaboration with Proyecto Yaguareté, cataloging parasite diversity under the supervision of Dr. Juliana Notarnicola, and collaborating with our team at Brown University teams to integrate molecular assays—experience that now propels a far-reaching investigation into spillover and spillback dynamics around Puerto Iguazú.

Cecilia is one of the instructors for HelmCamp 2026 at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. See the program's comprehensive agenda and register for the program through the Organization for Tropical Studies. 

A Scientist to Watch

Cecilia’s CV reads like a checklist for wildlife disease detectives with the right blend of grit, lab fluency, and cross-border teamwork experience that makes her exactly the type of investigator you'd want to have tracing zoonotic threats. By sampling parasites from jaguars, pumas, ocelots, margays, jaguarundis, and domestic cats across urban, peri-urban, and forested habitats, Cecilia is going to document the prevalence, intensity, and species richness of parasitic helminth communities that infect felids of the region--and ultimately across the Americas. The resulting dataset will spotlight high-risk areas, inform future vaccination and deworming campaigns, and guide conservation triage for threatened carnivores. Just as importantly, it will flag candidate pathogens for public-health surveillance before the next crisis has a chance to erupt.

Together we expect to describe new species, untangle complex networks of host-parasite interactions, and learn about the fundamentals that will allow us to better manage the environment for public health and conservation.