Makedonka Mitreva and the World of Parasitic Worms, Poverty and Solutions

You'll enter the world of parasitic worms, poverty and solutions when you listen to the virtual seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on Wednesday, April 6.

Makedonka Mitreva, professor of medicine and genetics, Division of Infectious Diseases, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, will speak on "Multi-omics Applications in Helminth Research" at her seminar set for 4:10 p.m., Pacific Time. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076.

"My research takes advantage of next-generation genomic and computational approaches to empower the study of infectious diseases, with a focus on neglected tropical diseases caused by helminths," Mitreva writes in her abstract. "Overcoming the main obstacle related to scarce understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in host invasion and pathogenesis, required generating comprehensive omics datasets from various helminth species. Interrogating such multi-omics data followed by systems biology approaches provided us with opportunity to greatly advance translational helminth research."

On her website, Mitreva points out: "More than 3 billion people worldwide live on less than $2.50 a day. The majority live in low- and middle- income countries, and some in vulnerable communities of high-income countries. Chronic infections in these populations are predominated by parasitic helminths. Helminth infections are typified by long term chronicity accompanied with various symptoms (pain, malnutrition, physical disabilities, rectal prolapse, deformity), cause growth impairment in children, anemia, adverse outcomes in pregnant women and reduced productivity in adults, which all conspire to promote and maintain poverty."

She recently joined the editorial board of Frontiers in Parasitology as section chief editor.

Mitreva says her lab "uses systems biology approaches to provide fundamental molecular information for these parasitic infections of importance to global health.  The acquired knowledge accelerates both basic and translational research and provides practical results for global health improvement." Her lab's broad interest in global health improvement, she points out, is reflected in many other collaborative projects, including malaria, tuberculosis and medical metagenomics.

Mitreva holds bachelor and master's degrees in biology, 1990 and 1994, respectively, from Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. She received her doctorate in plant sciences, molecular and population genetics in 2001 from the Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands Laboratory of Nematology. 

For any technical issues encountered with the virtual seminar, reach coordinator Shahid Siddique at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.

(See list of the department's spring seminars here)