DrShannon Hedtke
Research Fellow
La Trobe University
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Nematode parasites are responsible for a wide variety of neglected tropical diseases. My lab is interested in questions such as how ecology, host migration, host switching, and management decisions affect a parasite species’ genetic diversity, and how that in turn affects important characteristics such as a parasite's response to drugs or the severity of the pathology they cause. I have research projects on onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, and strongyloidiasis.
The lab’s vision is to provide tools to aid in the elimination of parasitic diseases that are a public health threat, and to provide training for students and for workers in endemic countries to support the global use and development of these tools.
Current projects include using genomic data to investigate the evolution of poor response to macrocyclic lactones in nematodes (Onchocerca volvulus, Strongyloides stercoralis), examining the reasons for re-emergence of disease in areas where it was presumed eliminated (O. volvulus and Wuchereria bancrofti), and developing predictive epidemiological models that account for these processes.
The lab’s vision is to provide tools to aid in the elimination of parasitic diseases that are a public health threat, and to provide training for students and for workers in endemic countries to support the global use and development of these tools.
Current projects include using genomic data to investigate the evolution of poor response to macrocyclic lactones in nematodes (Onchocerca volvulus, Strongyloides stercoralis), examining the reasons for re-emergence of disease in areas where it was presumed eliminated (O. volvulus and Wuchereria bancrofti), and developing predictive epidemiological models that account for these processes.