Belinda Smith

So they're all in there, in that glass.

Why have you got them?

I must say on the screen they look rather elegant, but I'll move slightly away to where Alex is.

Alex, what's the main project going on here?

We have a number of interests in parasitic worms, particularly in hookworms, which is what you're looking at here.

Our interest really circles around what we refer to as the secretome of the worms, all the molecules that they secrete out of particularly their mouth or their anterior end.

And in an infected rat or in an infected human,

such as myself with the human hookworm, the worms bury their anterior end or their head with these beautiful mouth parts that they have that have cutting plates or teeth, depending on the species, and they latch on to the gut wall very much like a leech.

And they do that because they suck blood.

These worms feed on blood and the adult stage of the worm that lives in the small bowel is about one centimetre long.

So they have a voracious appetite for blood.

But if you're infected with just a modest number, like I am, I don't lose enough blood to become anaemic.

I have absolutely zero symptoms and people who have a light or moderate intensity infection don't have much in the way of symptoms.

Where these worms become a problem, and hookworm is a problem in a lot of developing countries, is when they infect undernourished individuals who aren't getting enough food supply and therefore are susceptible to developing anaemia.

Iron deficiency anaemia is the type of anaemia you get with hookworm.

And the more worms people harbour, the more blood loss they experience.

That's when you experience the clinical effects of a hookworm infection.

Alex, how did you get those hookworms in you?

Ah, the tortuous journey.

That infective larval stage is only about 0.1 millimetre long and they penetrate through the skin.