Illari Delgado Co-Authors Article in International Parasitology Journal

2017 Jan 17

Illari Delgado of Newfield, NY, has co-authored an article describing five new species of tapeworms in Folia Parasitologica, a peer-reviewed, open-access, international journal covering all branches of animal parasitology.

Nine SUNY Oneonta alumni (all former undergraduate biology majors) collaborated with Associate Professor of Biology Florian Reyda on the research over a period of six years and are co-authors on the publication.

In the article, titled, "A new genus of rhinebothriidean cestodes from batted elasmobranchs, with the description of five new species and two new combinations," Reyda and a colleague describe a new genus (group of species) of tapeworm from stingrays. "Stillabothrium" is named for the tear-dropped shape of one of its features, the bothridia of its scolex (attachment structures). A total of five new species of tapeworms are described, each by different combinations of student co-authors and Reyda. In each case, students picked the names of the new species and prepared scientific illustrations of them.

Delgado worked primarily on the Stillabothrium campbelli species, named after William C. Campbell, a recent recipient of the 2015 Nobel Price in Physiology or Medicine.

"One of the buzzwords in biology is biodiversity, or biological diversity," said Reyda. "There are all these species and we have knowledge of a lot of them, but we're always asking, 'What species are still out there that humans have not yet discovered?' The significance of this research is just simply filling in a major knowledge gap about the natural world. We're the first people to look at those worms."

Two of Reyda's colleagues collected the parasite specimens in Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and Senegal and turned them over to him and his students for analysis. All of the work was done at SUNY Oneonta's Biological Field Station on Otsego Lake, where the students also learned how to collect fish parasite specimens to gain a better understanding of the project.

After graduation, Delgado worked for the city of Ithaca doing quality-control water sampling for the Ithaca Waste Water Treatment Facility and doing some collaborations with the U.S .Geological Survey. After just under a year of working for the city, she decided to return to school. She is currently attending Upstate Medical University, where she is specializing in radiation oncology.

"I learned how to write and successfully apply for grants, I traveled to other another country, I collaborated with researchers from other universities and even had the pleasure of sharing my work as a guest speaker for the Oneonta Rotary Club," she said. "Essentially, it took the practices that are taught in a conventional classroom and put them in a three-dimensional way that most undergraduate students never get to experience. It's interesting, because as an undergraduate you go in with a sense of what you want out of school and you understand the way to achieve success in the classroom setting, but to be responsible for your own project where you need to direct your work, collaborate with others and then, after months of research, see the final product unfold, is something that can only be understood if experienced. Now that I've returned to school, the skills I remember most are from my work as a researcher. I'm able to implement them in my methods for learning and when I have clinical practices. "

This work was supported by a collaborative National Science Foundation grant on which Reyda was a participant, as well as by several student research grants funded by the SUNY Oneonta Foundation.