Olson Lab

Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD United Kingdom

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From the 1990s onwards, the PWG have been complementing traditional slide-mounted and formalin-fixed collections with specimens fixed for the preservation of their DNA





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Darwin Centre II (opened 2009)


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Terracotta details, Alfred Waterhouse Building (opened 1881)
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Collections & Specimens
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Examples of stained, slide-mounted tapeworm parasite preparations for microscopical examination (above) and storage of ethanol-preserved tissue samples suitable for genetic analysis (left)

Parasitic Worms Group at the NHM

The NHM has been a repository of type and voucher specimens and other taxonomic resources since the late-nineteenth century. Collections in the PWG include 35-40,000 slide-mounted, and 1000s of spirited helminth specimens, including flatworms collected on the voyage of the HMS Beagle. Since the late 1990s, Tim Littlewood and I have amassed a research collection of ethanol-preserved flatworm specimens suitable for analyses requiring genomic DNA (as this is a working collection, please direct enquires to Tim or myself).

Other taxonomic resources include an extensive reprint collection, the divisional library (housing serial titles, books and monographs devoted to helminths; NB general parasitology titles are found in the Zoology library), exceptional microscope and digital documentation facilities, and a database of host-parasite records dating to the 1940s (see link below for the online database covering 1983-2004).

In 2012 the former Department of Zoology became part of the Department of Life Sciences, and the former Division of Parasitology part of the Parasites and Vectors group. We are located on the 7th floor of Darwin Centre I on Queensgate Road, South Kensington (nearest tube is South Kensington on the District, Circle and Piccadilly Lines). Please note, visitors should enter from Exhibition Road via security. Directions to the NHM

The PWG are:

Ms Eileen Harris, Curator
Dr Tim Littlewood, Merit Researcher
Dr Peter Olson, Researcher

Francesca Jarero, UCL/NHM PhD student
Dr Andrea Waeschenbach, NERC Post-Doctoral Research Associate

Dr Rod Bray, Research Associate
Dr Boyko Georgiev, Research Associate
Dr David Gibson, Research Associate
Dr Arlene Jones, Research Associate
Dr Hugh Jones, Research Associate


RELATED RESOURCES:

See the PWG Host-Parasite Database (with digitized records from 1983-2004; paper records dating back to the 1940s can be viewed in person by appointment).