Playing hide and seek with parasites

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About the research

Ever heard of a sand fly? If this small fly stings you, you can catch the serious, tropical disease Leishmaniasis. This disease is not easy to combat, because the parasites are masters at hiding in your body. Luckily Laura Dirkx (UAntwerp - FWO) has a trick up her sleeve to trace them 🕵️‍♀️

Health
Laura Dirkx
FWO - UAntwerpen

As a passionately curious person, for Laura Dirkx it was an obvious choice to study biomedical sciences at UAntwerpen, learning about many different medical fields. One field quickly caught her attention; infectious diseases, especially parasitic, which are often neglected since they are portrayed as ‘tropical’. She first came into contact with the parasite Leishmania during my Erasmus in Portugal, where leishmaniasis is a very common disease. This when she became very passionate about this parasite, and why she started a PhD on leishmaniasis. She wants to unravel why many patients become sick again months after seemingly successful treatment and more specifically where the parasites hide in the meanwhile. Since then she has been playing hide and seek with Leishmania!

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