The Hydra Helminth Conference
The next Hydra Conference will be Sunday 5th to Friday 10th September 2027
The 2027 meeting will mark the 25th Anniversary of the Hydra Conferences - Don’t Miss It!
Bratsera Hotel, Hydra, Greece
2027 Registration
Registration for the 2027 conference will commence in January 2027
Travel
Information on getting to Hydra and local transport
Accommodation
As well as the Bratsera Hotel there are a number of other options in Hydra Town
Hydra Helminth Conferences
Helminth parasitology has proven to be one of the fast-moving and inter-disciplinary research areas across a spectrum of scientific activities from genomics, immunology and tropical medicine. With rapidly increasing sequence information, new drug development for therapy, and intricate host-parasite molecular interactions, research on these organisms and the diseases they cause is becoming ever more exciting and relevant to global health. A key element in the success of helminth research has been the collaborative and interactive community of investigators working in this field.
This Conference, previously titled the Molecular and Cellular Biology of Helminth Parasites, was relaunched in 2019 under a broader banner Parasitic Helminths: New Perspectives in Biology and Infection.
The 14 previous conferences have been an integral part of the rapid development of this whole field, starting in Edinburgh in 1997 and 1999, and convening on the island of Hydra, Greece since 2002. Increasing demand across the range of participants led to the conference being held annually since 2014, with the exception of the pandemic years 2020 and 2021.
All major areas of helminth research are included, in 12 wide-ranging sessions. An important aspect of this meeting, is the interface between parasite biologists and investigators from worm model systems such as C. elegans, which is proving highly effective at bringing new blood and fresh perspectives into the topic. We also promote interactions with endemic country researchers and promote new investigators entering the field. The Conferences offer a special atmosphere of concentrated science, interactive discussions and generous opportunities for informal follow-ups.
2027 Speakers
Erik Andersen, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
Maria Bottazzi, Baylor College of Medicine, Waco, Texas, USA
Minka Breloer, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
Astra Bryant, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
Alvaro Diaz, Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay
Andy Fraser, University of Toronto, Canada
Bill Horsnell, University of Exeter. UK
Yen-Ping Hsueh, Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen, Germany
Alex Loukas, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Gyaviira Nkurunungi, Uganda Virus Research Institute, Uganda
Hermelijn Smits, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands
Liesbet Temmerman, KU Leuven, Belgium
Venue & Conference format
A key feature of the Hydra venue is the Bratsera Hotel which will host the scientific sessions, and its quiet, traffic-free town with ample facilities for informal interactions between delegates. A wide range of accommodation is available within 5-10 minutes walk of the conference venue, including pensions for those on a tight budget. Attendance is limited to 100 people, consistent with a discussion-orientated meeting in which every participant presents either a plenary talk or in a small poster session, and thus early registration is encouraged. As with previous conferences, we have invited a small number of selected speakers to give keynote talks across the range of themes.
Parasitic Helminths
5th - 10th September 2027
