• Question: Which parasite has been the hardest to study for you?

    Asked by anon-292566 to Ross on 21 Apr 2021.
    • Photo: Ross Low

      Ross Low answered on 21 Apr 2021:

      Hi Joe,
      I’d have to say the hardest parasite to study was a stomach parasite called Blastocystis (blast – o – sis – tis) (https://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/blastocystis/index.html). That’s because it lives where there is no oxygen. The oxygen actually kills the cells. The problem with that is when we try to grow them in the lab there is oxygen everywhere! So we have to grow them in a special box that squeezes all the air out and puts special air in. That makes it very difficult to grow them and even harder to do experiments on them because all the experiments have to be done in the box.
      Ross

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