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Published Monday, October 26, 2020
Costa Rican scientist recognized
in France
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Alicia Rojas-Araya, a scientist at the Faculty of Microbiology of the University of Costa Rica, was recognized by the French Odile Bain Memorial for her studies on parasites.
This recognition, in honor of the French parasitologist Odile Bain, has been awarded annually since 2014 by the renowned scientific journal Parasites & Vectors, in association with the company French Animal Health Boehringer Ingelheim. The recognition is only received by those scientists considered to be the most outstanding in this field of study.
“This award represents a great privilege because it is in honor of the scientist Odile Bain," Rojas said. "She had significant challenges and still managed to leave a strong legacy in the field of parasitology."
According to the university, Rojas' research was conducted in Israel for six years, where she even discovered a new species of a parasite. She surpassed six other applicants from renowned institutions from Switzerland, Brazil, Italy, Egypt, Chile and China.
The rigorousness of her studies also allowed her to share the mention with two other international scientists: Dr. Adnan Hodžic, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Dr. Angela M. Ionică, from Romania.
According to Gad Baneth, director of the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine in Israel, where Rojas did her doctorate under his supervision, she can only be described with one word: "outstanding." This was one of the main reasons why he decided to nominate her to Odile Bain.
"Alicia's capabilities combine the knowledge and skills necessary to describe parasite morphology and structure, with the use of advanced molecular and bioinformatic techniques to analyze genomes," Baneth said.
Rojas is one of the people chosen for recognition due to her global performance in parasitology. She has studied nearly eight different organisms that affect horses, dogs, and cats.
Of the research carried out by Rojas, two types of parasitic worms stand out. The first is Spirocerca lupi, a generator of cancer in dogs and the protagonist of her doctoral thesis. The second is the discovery of the species Spirocerca vulpis, which it successfully carried out in 2018.
The newly discovered species, S.vulpis, was found in red foxes from Europe.
S. lupi is one of the few parasites that cause cancer in animals and, if not treated in time, the infection can be fatal. Rojas was in charge of characterizing the molecules that this organism releases to interact with its host, which allowed improving the understanding of invasion and pathogenesis in the dog.
With the analysis of certain DNA sequences, the diagnosis and recognition of new places where the worm lives inside the domestic animal were improved.
In the case of S. vulpis, its discovery was momentous and marked a milestone in the world's scientific heritage, the university said in its statement.
The parasite that many scientists described as S. lupi was wrong. Rojas discovered during the study of red foxes from Spain, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, that it was another very similar but different species, which she later named S. vulpis.
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Could this newly discovered parasite be the first step in the development of a treatment against diseases in dogs? We would like to know
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