My name is Liza Walker, and I am an undergraduate student at the University of Tampa. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, majoring in marine biology and minoring in environmental studies. I am very passionate about pursuing research within the biological field. My interest lies in parasitology and disease ecology, exploring the relationships between hosts and parasites. I have been working under Dr. Durkin and Kathleen Gillis on a project exploring an unidentified trematode worm within the fins of Elops saurus ladyfish in Tampa Bay. I am thrilled to continue this project on a grant under Dr. Durkin next year!

My name is Kathleen Gillis; I however go by Katie. I just graduated from the University of Tampa with a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science-Biology. After taking Parasitology with Dr. Durkin around 2 years ago I found a passion for the subject and wanted to continue. Dr. Durkin presented wanting to investigate a parasite actually from leftover fish from my class project. So, I picked up this research on this trematode parasite, which we figured out was from genus Saccularina. Shortly after starting the project Dr. Durkin presented me with the opportunity to have a research student, which I gladly excepted. After that both myself and Liza Walker investigated this parasite by analyzing host, available information, DNA work, slide mounting, and imaging for possible analysis. Some of it wasn’t the easiest since information on this genus and techniques were lacking. I taught myself how to slide mount based off of a video I found from the Wood Lab. This was a huge learning opportunity, and I had a lot of fun with both Dr. Durkin and Liza Walker plus the others I reached out to for help. I hope that in the future I’ll at least continue research work and maybe go into parasites for life, but that’s still up for debate. 

My name is Markayla Harrison, and I am from Charleston, South Carolina. I am a Junior at the University of Tampa studying for a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in marine biology. I have a deep passion for research and education, two reasons why I aspire to pursue a graduate degree and become a professor of biology. Before I began researching with Dr. Durkin, I aided in making slides of the cultured mites for Anngelyk La Luz’s research project, “Deciphering the symbiotic relationship between mites and flies: using scanning electron microscopy to find evidence for mites damaging their fly hosts.” This year, I will be participating in testing a new testing technique for mite collection with Dr. Durkin and researching the symbiotic relationship between Pinnotherid crabs and their Ascidian hosts in Tampa Bay. 

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My name is Anngelyk M. La Luz Maldonado currently, I am a junior at the University of Tampa pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science-Biology with a minor in Environmental Science. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and I love learning new skills and gaining more knowledge. After I graduate from my undergraduate, I want to go to graduate school and later become a professor. This year I have the opportunity of working and doing research with Dr. Durkin on which we will be studying Macrocheles muscaedomesticae mites, which are assumed to be phoretic. The relationship between M. muscaedomesticae mites and their fly host has not been completely established or understood. Past studies have stated that the mites when attached to a fly cause harm to the it (Jalil & Rodriguez 1970, Luong et al. 2015) and other studies state that this does not occur and the mite does not cause any harm to its host ( Kinn 1966). Due to the unclear relationship between the mite and the fly host our research is called “Deciphering the symbiotic relationship between mites and flies: using scanning electron microscopy to find evidence for mites damaging their fly hosts”. We hypothesize that the mites are indeed damaging and potentially feeding on the tissues of the fly. To test this hypothesis we will generate and culture multiple genetically different mite populations, measure the level of host attachment and image mites that have attached to a fly using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which will provide detailed morphology at high magnification to inspect for any physical damage on the fly cause by the mite