News
In memoriam Professor Mike (Michael) Doenhoff, BSc, PhD, DSc, FIBiol
The British Society for Parasitology was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Professor Mike Doenhoff, who passed away on 18th October 2024. Mike was one of the world’s most eminent, prolific and passionate schistosomiasis researchers, with 300 publications to his name.
Mike was champion of the British Society for Parasitology, and everything that we stand for. Over many years Mike held roles on Council and was made an Honorary Member for his immense contributions to our society. Mike was always enthusiastic, kind and generous and supported many early career researchers, including 25 PhD students, but he also supported and advised many more people throughout their career journeys. He was always encouraging and challenged ideas and hypotheses with good humour and a deep rumbling laugh.
Mike was generous both in spirit and also through his support of schistosomiasis research, often funding special symposia and workshops from his own pocket. He was a stalwart of the British Society for Parasitology, organising special schistosomiasis sessions and he was ever present at our annual meetings. During lockdown in 2021 Mike even hosted a special session on schistosomiasis in our Parasites Online Spring Meeting. However, Mike would be the first to tell you that he was an immunologist by trade rather than a parasitologist but his passion for parasites grew from his love of immunology and the mechanisms that parasites use to escape and evade their host’s immune systems.
Mike’s scientific career began in microbiology, he graduated from the University of Reading in 1967 and then took up his doctoral studies in immunology at the Institute of Cancer Research, London. Following his successful defence of his PhD thesis in 1970, Mike was awarded a Medical Research Council postdoctoral fellowship and continued his research at the Institute of Cancer Research. Five years later Mike moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Research Fellow, and it was here that he focused his research on the immunology of schistosomiasis.
Mike was fascinated with the egg stage of the parasite that is responsible for the pathology of schistosomiasis and demonstrated immune dependence of egg excretion. Mike later demonstrated the importance of host immune responses in enhancing the efficacy of schistosomicidal drugs including Praziquantel. He coined this phenomenon the ‘immune dependence of chemotherapy’.
Understanding the immune dependence of chemotherapy and trying to elucidate the parasite-killing mechanisms of Praziquantel underpinned much of Mike’s work. In 1990 Mike moved to the University of Wales, Bangor where he began an intensive programme of research exploring parasite susceptibility, and investigating the newly emerging reports from the field of parasite resistance, to Praziquantel.
Mike’s interest in schistosome biology and immunology resulted in a wealth of publications on the characterisation of antigens from eggs, larvae and adult worms and the development of a variety of assays for the immunodiagnosis of schistosomiasis.
As a result of his meticulous research and vast experience Mike served as a member of the WHO technical advisory group on anthelminthic drug efficacy and as an adviser on schistosomiasis diagnostics.
Professor Peter Chiodini, then Consultant Parasitologist at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, remembers just how extraordinary Mike was:
“I first met Mike Doenhoff in the dining hall at the 1988 British Society for Parasitology (BSP) Spring Meeting, where he was lunching with one of his PhD students. We began discussing our areas of interest and when I said I was a clinical parasitologist, we soon drilled down on the serodiagnosis of human schistosomiasis. Use of the SEA ELISA had only come on the scene four years earlier. The tests were in-house assays and the crucial ingredient was high quality purified SEA antigen. Mike soon began to supply SEA to my NHS Diagnostic Laboratory and, to borrow a term from novels about illegal narcotics, we soon realised that it was "the good stuff". That supply continued for more than two decades, until Mike closed down his laboratory, and literally thousands of NHS patients had a diagnosis of schistosomiasis confirmed or excluded by the Schistosomal ELISA using the SEA he provided. We affectionally referred to it as "Doenhoff Antigen" and we used it as the benchmark to assess new suppliers when Mike retired.
Mike was unusual, even amongst parasitologists, as he had an exceptionally strong grasp of medical matters and the central role of quality diagnostics in all healthcare settings. One of the many benefits from the approach he adopted was a joint PhD studentship between the University of Wales and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, looking at the antigens involved in serodiagnosis. Thus, my first PhD student, supervised jointly with Mike, was Ms (later Professor) Joanne Hamilton!
The last proper discussion with Mike was in 2018, 30 years after our first meeting and fittingly, it was at the BSP Spring Meeting in Aberystwyth, hosted by Joanne Hamilton. Mike and I had dinner together. I could eat for any country you could name and Mike was the ideal dinner companion. His passing leaves the world of Parasitology missing his sheer presence. I am grateful that I had the chance to experience it”.
Professor Peter Chiodini OBE
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Mike truly was a legend of the schistosome world. He will be greatly missed by his family, his friends, our immunology and parasitology communities and of course his British Society for Parasitology “family”. Mike’s legacy lives on in the wealth of knowledge he published and so generously shared with shared with his colleagues, friends and mentees. Thank you Mike, we were so privileged to learn from you.
Mike is survived by his wife, Judy, and their three children.
Jo Hamilton (President of the British Society for Parasitology)
BSP 2024 Autumn Symposium: Cambridge University Press call for articles
Following on from the successful BSP Autumn Symposium held at the Natural History Museum, CUP Parasitology will be accepting manuscript submissions for a Special Issue entitled “Parasites of the genital tract and short- and long-term consequences”.Guest Editors: S. Kayuni, J. Musaya, J. Ellis & J. R. Stothard
From 6th September 2024, Parasitology welcomes invited and open submissions for a Special Issue that brings together recent research exploring the biology of parasites within the genital tract of vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. The Special Issue will take a holistic approach across three themes of medical, veterinary and wildlife interests, establishing insightful comparisons.
Our Special Issue is inspired, in part, by the British Society for Parasitology Autumn Symposium as held on 4-5th September and entitled “Highlighting female and male genital schistosomiasis in Africa”. This meeting will shine new light onto the epidemiology and control of human schistosomes, with focus upon Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma mattheei trematode blood flukes. The latter species can be considered an emerging zoonosis.
The full impact of parasitic disease within the human genital tract goes beyond that of infections with schistosomes alone and includes important protists such as Trichomonas vaginalis. Despite having the highest prevalence of any sexually transmitted infection globally, there is a dearth of epidemiological data describing its incidence, prevalence and response to medicines in women and men. Ectoparasites such as Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis can be specifically adapted to our human biology by exploiting our sexual activity and skin-to-skin contacts.
Outside of medical interest, parasites that cause infection and disease in livestock and wildlife are numerous but often understudied. In livestock, Tritrichomonas foetus causes infertility and foetal death, negatively impacting on cattle production systems. In wildlife, certain nematodes and trematodes of birds may infect the oviduct from the cloaca by reverse peristalsis, with heavy infestations causing soft-shelled and shell-less eggs. Parasites of the reproductive tracts and systems of invertebrates such as marine molluscs can have fascinating yet harmful effects.
Closing submission date: 31st January 2025
Join your BSP Council!
The Council of the British Society for Parasitology seeks new members due to current members reaching the end of their term. Applicants from all career stages of our community are welcomed. We are a diverse and multicultural society, dedicated to inclusion and seek a council whose composition represents our membership. As such, we particularly welcome applications from those sections of our membership that are currently under-represented on council.
Please contact the Honorary General Secretary Martin Llewellyn hongensec@bsp.uk.net if you are interested in applying.