Professor Mark Taylor is Head of Parasitology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and President of the British Society for Parasitology. He works on a group of neglected tropical diseases known as filarial nematodes, which have evolved a mutualistic symbiosis with the bacterium, Wolbachia. His research exploits the Wolbachia/worm symbiosis as a target for antibiotic therapy, providing a novel and effective treatment for river blindness and elephantiasis.

Talk: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water – tropical parasites becoming temperate?