Malaria Parasite Laboratory

Malaria Parasites: Ecology and Evolution The Schall Lab at the University of Vermont
Current Lab Group	Former Graduate Students	Undergraduate Research
Field Sites	Techniques	Funding Sources
Lizard Malaria Parasites		Publications



Since 1978, the malaria research lab has always included an active group of graduate and undergraduate students and lab guide Dr. Joseph Schall. The photo was taken one summer day after the new lab t-shirts arrived. On the shirts is seen the most recent, well-resolved, phylogeny of malaria parasites that was recovered in the lab. A brief biography of each current lab member appears below. Shown above are Nate Hicks who graduated with highest distinction in 2011, Katie St. Denis who graduated in 2010 and is now a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvanis, graduate student Alli Neal, Alice Flynn Ford who graduated in 2010 and is now in an MD/PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Schall.

	Jos. J. Schall Professor of Biology University of Vermont e-mail Prof. Schall
Jos. J. Schall has been on the faculty of the University of Vermont since 1980. He received his BS from Penn State, the MS from the University of Rhode Island, and the Ph.D. from the University of Texas. His interests in graduate school were community ecology and geographic trends in species richness. He conducted field work in the diverse Cnemidophorus lizard asemblage in the desert of SW Texas. Some of this work was published with his mentor, Eric Pianka. Schall's interests then shifted to parasites, and he was awarded an NIH individual postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked with noted parasitologist John Simmons. Since 1978 he has conducted a long-term study of the malaria parasites of lizards at a site in northern California (UC's Hopland Research and Extension Center field station), and several Caribbean sites, including a long-term study on the tiny islands of Saba and St. Martin and the LTER site at El Verde in Puerto Rico. A study in Sierra Leone, west Africa, while productive, had to end because of civil war. In a break from studies on parasites, he worked with graduate students Denise Dearing and Steve Ressel on diet selection by herbivorous lizards on small Caribbean islands and with graduate student Diane (Cannon) Faile on the nesting behavior of the Pelagic Cormorant. Schall has been honored by the University of Vermont with the two highest awards for teaching excellence, and the university's highest award for research excellence. His research has been continuously funded for nearly 30 years by the NSF, and for studies on avian malaria parasites, by the Morris Animal Foundation. His work has resulted in 90 publications in major scientific journals.

	Allison Neal Graduate Student in Biology University of Vermont e-mail Allison
Alli entered our graduate program in the fall of 2009, but was already very familiar to all of us. She graduated with her BA in Biology in the spring after completing her Senior Honors project in the lab. Each year, the department honors the graduating senior with the highest GPA, and Alli was our 2009 winner! Naturally, we tried to lure Alli into staying on as a graduate student, and were very pleased that she has accepted. Alli did field work at the California (Hopland) field site with undergraduate Honors student Jennifer Fricke in the summer of 2008. This jump-started her grad project. Alli returned to the Hopland site for the full summers of 2009 and 2010. Her research examines the gametocyte sex ratio of Plasmodium mexicanum, particularly the influence of clonal diversity within an infection on the parasite's sex ratio. She uses a combination of classical parasitological techniques (hundreds of hours on the microscope) and modern molecular methods (genotyping infections using variable genetic markers). Alli has already demonstrated that there is genetic diversity for sex ratio when parasites are in single-clone infections, only the second time this has been documented (although the effect may be common). That study was published in Parasitology, Alli's first publication. Alli's second publication, in press in Parasitology examines the relationship between the fecundity (number of gametes produced) for male gametocyte cells, and finds a relationship between fecundity and sex ratio in single-clone infections (as predicted by evolutionary theory). This spring Alli received two wonderful honors: She was awarded a fellowship to study with Robert Poulin in New Zealand for the summer, and received a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship for the next three years. Alli is also an avid teacher, and has volunteered at a local Middle School, and already has taken a series of undergrad researchers under wing both in the field and the lab.

	Megan Lind Undergraduate Honors Student University of Vermont e-mail Megan
Megan joined the lab in her Sophomore year, and is now continuing on as a Junior Biology major. Megan is in the Honors College and is working this year on a study of the different white blood cell classes in Anolis lizards of the Caribbean to detect possible manipulation of the host blood picture by a malaria parasite. For the summer of 2011, Megan traveled to the Hopland California field site to work with Dr. Anne Vardo-Zalik of Penn State University on the distribution of the sand fly vector of Plasmodium mexicanum. Megan blends interests she inherited from her parents, a planned career in medicine (her father is a cardiologist) and fencing (her mother was a varsity fencer as an undergraduate). We try not to make jokes about the a medical professional who can stab 'em and then treat 'em (OK, that was a joke).

	Pedro Teixeira Undergraduate Honors Student University of Vermont e-mail Pedro
Pedro joined the lab this year and has been very active working with Alli Neal on a study of life history traits of Plasmodium mexicanum, which involves lots of time counting parasites under the microscope. This kind of work is helped if the researcher has a Zen perspective, so it is good that Pedro is both a Zoology and Japanese major. We have testimony from an international student from Japan that Pedro sounds like a native Japanese when he speaks the language. Pedro says it was easier learning Japanese because he is a native of Brazil and so is already bilingual, speaking both Portuguese and English. Pedro is entering his third year at UVM, but will spend it in Japan, and we will miss him for an entire year. However, to be sure he won't forget malaria biology, Pedro is spending a month at the Hopland study site with Megan and Dr. Anne Vardo-Zalik of Penn State. They will be helping Anne with her study of the vector of Plasmodium mexicanum.