Biodiversity of Southeast Asian Parasites and Vectors causing Human Disease

Dr. Trevor Petney is currently working at the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe and is a Visiting Professor at both the Universities of Khon Kaen and Mahasakhram in Thailand. His main research interests involve the complex dynamics of host-tick-pathogen systems, changes to host-parasite systems, including their biodiversity, under changing environments. He has published over 230 peer-reviewed papers and is currently a specialist editor for tick and tick-borne diseases for the International Journal for Parasitology. Weerachai Saijuntha is Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the Walai Rukhavej Botanical Research Institute, Mahasarakham University in Thailand. His research interests include the molecular systematics and population genetics of terrestrial animals, parasites, and vectors in Southeast Asia. The main focus of research is on pathogenic parasites and their snail intermediate hosts. He has been active in molecular systematics and genetic variation research of medially important trematodes and bithyniid snails for 12 years and has published over 60 peer reviewed original research articles, refereed reviews, and specialist book chapters. He has received a number of national and international awards as a result of his research which is continuously improving our understanding of parasites and the diseases they transmit in Southeast Asia and globally. Professor Heinz Mehlhorn studied at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn (Germany). He was chairman of the parasitological institutes in Dusseldorf and Bochum. As a former president of the World Society of Protozoology and long-standing member of the steering committee of the World Society of Parasitologists he runs ongoing lectures in parasitology in several countries and teaches courses for medical students in Dusseldorf. He has published a variety of specialist books on parasitological problems in German, French, English and Spanish. He holds the patents on 12 antiparasitic drugs, which are the basis of products sold by the university spin-off company Alpha-Biocare GmbH (Neuss, Germany), which produces medications, repellents and wound care products for humans and animals.

Changing biodiversity on the parasite hosts in Southeast Asia.- Species richness and species co-occurrence of helminth parasites in the Rattus rattus-complex across stratified habitat landuse types in mainland Southeast Asia.- Intestinal protozoa; their role as human pathogens and zoonoses.- Biodiversity of human trematodes and their intermediate hosts in Southeast Asia.- The community of nematodes inhabiting the human gut.- Molecular identification and genetic diversity of cestodes in Southeast Asia.- Black fly diversity and impacts on human welfare in Southeast Asia.- Ticks - a large unexplored factor in human disease transmission.- Parasite diversity and dynamics and climate change.