Co-organised by Dr. Pytsje Hoekstra and Dr. Lisette Van Lieshout, the event featured presentations detailing the innovative research taking place across the Netherlands, Belgium, and beyond, including keynote lectures from Philippe Bastin at the Institut Pasteur Paris, France, and Mark Taylor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK.
Dr. Rajagopal Murugan delivered the Boehringer Ingelheim Award for Parasitological Research Lecture with the title “Adaptive Immunity to Malaria: From Fundamentals to Vaccines”, after being announced as the 2026 laureate earlier this month.
PhD students Chanel Naar and Eva Iliopoulou gave insightful presentations on their work on controlled human malaria infection as a part of the Translational Parasitology group. Chanel detailed her work on sporozoite inhibition as a predictor of vaccine efficacy, and Eva shared her work on the life cycle of Plasmodium Falciparum strains, for which she won the member-voted award for Best Presentation.
LUCID members delivered poster pitches, with highlights from the research of Linda Wammes, Prof. Cornelis Hokke, Sophie van Pelt, and Stan Hilt, who focus on helminth infection, and Dr. Jelte Krol and Rebecca Stephanie, who are working on malaria vaccines.
'Til next year!