Dr Ruth Kirk
Contact
- Email: ruth.kirk@kingston.ac.uk
- Location: Penrhyn Road
- Faculty: Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education
- School: School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry
- Department: Department of Applied and Human Sciences
About
I am a eukaryotic parasitologist, specialising in molecular identification and ecology of aquatic helminths. Early research focused on introduced parasites of fish such as Sanguinicola inermis in carp (PhD, Royal Holloway University of London and Thames Water), Anguillicoloides crassus in eels (Leverhulme Trust Research Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Exeter and Royal Holloway) and Atractolytocestus huronensis in carp (Research Fellowship, Kingston University). I worked as an aquatic consultant and then joined Kingston University as a research fellow, progressing to associate professor. I have supervised MSc and PhD research projects on schistosomiasis, fish parasites, histology, cercarial dermatitis and led the UK Digenean Diversity Project which has resulted in molecular identification of many digenean parasites of freshwater snail vectors in England for the first time. I am currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at Kingston University.
Academic responsibilities
Visiting Senior Fellow in Parasitology
Qualifications
- PhD Fish Parasitology (University of London)
- BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences (University of London)
Gallery of work
Life cycle of avian Schistosomatidae parasites
Avian schistosomatid parasites cause pathology in a variety of birds and are agents of human cercarial dermatitis.
Cercaria of Trichobilharzia franki
Cercariae of avian schistosomatids like T. franki emerge from snails and swim in the water to find a bird host, but may accidentally penetrate human skin causing cercarial dermatitis.
Life cycle of Schistosoma mansoni - an agent of human schistosomiasis
Human schistosomiasis is an acute and chronic disease that affects over 200 million people, prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas of the world.
Scanning electron micrograph of Schistosoma bovis - an agent of ruminant schistosomiasis
Hybrid forms of S. bovis-S. haematobium can infect humans and are reported in West Africa and Corsica.
Life cycle of echinostomes
Many types of echinostome parasites cause a gastrointestinal disease known as echinostomiasis. People can be infected when they eat infected raw or undercooked aquatic products like fish or molluscs.
Cercaria of Echinostoma revolutum, an echinostome parasite
Echinostoma revolutum is distributed worldwide, but only causes disease when raw or undercooked second intermediate hosts (e.g. fish, molluscs, frogs) are traditionally eaten as in E and SE Asia.