HONORARY RESEARCH FELLOW APPOINTED IN
THE DEPARTMENT OF LIFE SCIENCES

Mr Jacob Lorenzo-Morales, a final-year PhD student at the University of La Laguna in the Canary Islands, Spain, has been appointed an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Life Sciences. He will be working as a member of Dr Ralph Robinson’s Parasite Research Group (PRG) for the period January 21 to October 30, 2004.

During his sojourn at Mona, Jacob will assist Cecelia Hall, a graduate student in the PRG, with sampling parasites of wild rats and snails throughout the island in order to determine the distribution, prevalence and intensity of the roundworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis in animal hosts, and the mode of infection of humans. The parasite is an ‘emerging infection’ in Jamaica, and a documented cause of meningitis in humans in the island and elsewhere.

Jacob will also be working with Dr John Lindo of the Department of Microbiology, who is also a member of the PRG, in his research of an ‘opportunistic infection’ caused by the protest Acanthamoeba. This organism has been implicated in corneal infections of humans in Jamaica.

In addition, Jacob will use his considerable molecular biological experience to assist Suzette Fletcher, another graduate student in the PRG, to characterize hookworm infections of feral dogs in Jamaica. The aim of this work is to establish which species of hookworms occur in dogs in Jamaica, and to determine the health risk to humans here.

Jacob comes equipped with his own funding, and the formal association with UWI has already contributed to the establishment of collaborative links with the University of La Laguna that will, undoubtedly, enhance the reputation of UWI abroad.