email: yasmine.p.kumordzi@durham.ac.uk
Yasmine really loves insects and decided to volunteer in our lab, spending some time every week doing insect maintenance and Drosophila crosses. Yasmine is currently studying a PhD in Durham University within the topic ‘Probing the Leishmania sphingosine kinase, a potential drug target’ under supervision of Dr Paul Denny and Dr Ehmke Pohl. Yasmine previously studied BSc Biomedical Science in Lancaster University, staying on to complete an MSc (by research) in Biomedical Sciences under the supervision of Dr Rod Dillon and Dr Alexandre Benedetto. Whilst studying her masters Yasmine explored the chemotaxis responses of Leishmania parasites (L. mexicana and L.tarentolae) using a 2D microfluidic system. Studies included insect (Lutzomyia longipalpis and Aedes aegypti) infection and gut dissection work. In 2018, Yasmine undertook a SynaNet H2020 workshop ‘Superfly: a practical workshop on the use of Drosophila Melanogaster in neuroscience research’. With a wide interest in vector biology and parasite-host interaction, her previous work has led to her joining Durham University for an interdisciplinary parasitology PhD training. Away from the laboratory Yasmine is keen on bio-arts, having contributed to para-site-seeing (https://para-site-seeing.org) which is currently based in Dundee.