Conference Agenda

Advances second and third-generation sequencing technologies over the last decade have revolutionised the analysis of microbial communities and are now being increasingly applied in helminthology research. There are many opportunities, as well as some specific challenges, when applying these approaches to helminths. Long-read and short-read shotgun sequencing are generating many more, and higher quality, reference helminth genomes which will be crucial to apply genome-wide approaches to helminth population genetic studies. However, metabarcoding and targeted deep sequencing have an important roles and are particularly powerful when dealing with large sample numbers, low amounts and/or low quality template DNA (for example in stool samples), and complex and/or poorly defined helminth communities. This talk will focus on current resources and future directions in both short-read and long-read metabarcoding (nemabiome metabarcoding) and targeted deep sequencing and their application to study anthelmintic drug resistance, molecular epidemiology and molecular diagnostics of parasitic nematodes in both animals and humans. Examples will include recent work on the widespread emergence of anthelmintic resistance in canine hookworm Ancylostoma caninum across north America as well as the role of metabarcoding in the discovery of a new species of human Trichuris, T. hominis, which is refractory to albendazole-ivermectin combination therapy.