In this talk we will go over the discipline of parasitology - understanding it's evolution, biology and current diagnostics tests that exist including conventional and molecular methods. We will also discuss the challenges associated with diagnosing a parasitological infection, from specimen collection to analytical testing and interpretation. 

Ruwandi Kariyawasam, PhD, FCCM is a Board-Certified Clinical Microbiologist at the Alberta Precision Labs and Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology at the University of Alberta. Dr. Ruwandi completed BSc Honours in Biology at McMaster University in 2013. She completed her PhD in 2020 under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Boggild at the University of Toronto focusing on the role of a double-stranded RNA virus, Leishmania RNA Virus-1 in American Tegumentary Leishmaniasis - a neglected parasitic infection. Shortly after, she completed her post-doctoral training in the Clinical Microbiology Fellowship Program at the University of Alberta in August 2022 and recently was accepted as a Fellow of the Canadian College of Microbiologists in September 2023. Dr. Ruwandi's main research interests include imported arboviral and parasitological infections and improving molecular diagnostics in these areas.