The Hydra Helminth Conference

Sunday 1st – Friday 6th September 2024

Bratsera Hotel, Hydra, Greece

2024 Programme now Available

Plus oral presentation and poster sessions abstracts

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 13 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.

Read previous conference delegate reports

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.

2024 Speakers

Alex Loukas, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia (Keynote)
Daphne Cabianca, Helmholtz Munich, Germany
James Collins, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, USA
Julia Esser-van Bieren, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Keke Fairfax, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA
Karl Hoffmann, Aberystwyth University, UK
Tina Kyndt, University of Ghent, Belgium
Henry McSorley, University of Dundee, UK
Mostafa Zamanian, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

Parasitic Helminths

1st - 6th September 2024

Organising Committee

Amy Buck, University of Edinburgh
Jim Collins, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Niki Gounaris, Imperial College London
Rick Maizels, University of Glasgow
Murray Selkirk, Imperial College London