Aiste Vitkauskaite

Aiste Vitkauskaite

Aiste Vitkauskaite is a postgraduate student at the Molecular Parasitology Laboratory (MPL). She completed her BSc in Environmental Science and MSc in Toxicology at the University of Galway in 2021. She then worked as a research assistant at Dr Howard Fearnhead’s laboratory at the Apoptosis Research Centre, University of Galway. During that time Aiste was involved in developing the automated microphysiological system; she benchmarked this novel system against the standard high throughput and high content platforms by performing cellular toxicity assays using HepG2 spheroids. Aiste collaborated with the MPL in 2022 by generating new methodologies for the co-culture of HepG2 spheroids with the liver fluke parasite Fasciola hepatica. After first joining Professor Dalton’s lab as a research assistant in cell biology, she changed to pursuing her studies towards a PhD. She now focuses on developing and exploiting in vitro 3D cellular systems to study F. hepatica developmental biology and to simulate parasite-host interactions. She aims to apply the system in the screening and development of new parasite control methods, such as vaccines and anthelmintic drugs.