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6 program profilesoffering unmatched advanced-level coursesBiology of ParasitismIt was late in the game when Michael Povelones decided hewanted to join the fight against malaria. He had specialized indevelopmental biology throughout graduate school at Stanfordand had mastered new and exciting molecular techniques. Butas he began to consider his postdoctoral life, his next step wassuddenly clear. The research model that fascinated him more thanamphibians, more than chicks or mice was, in fact, the mosquito.“I have always been fascinated by parasites’ strategies to exploittheir hosts and hosts’ elaborate mechanisms to thwart would-beparasites,” he says. And after reading several high-profile researchpapers on the proteins mosquitoes use to combat invading malariaparasites, his fate was sealed. “I was convinced it was a new andpromising area of research,” says Povelones.Michael Povelones,Postdoctoral Fellow,Imperial College in Londonand Biology of ParasitismAlumnusDetermined to succeed, he found himself searching for a summercourse that would prepare him for life in an entirely new field: theparasitology equivalent of a language-immersion class. A postdocand close friend in his thesis lab suggested the MBL’s Biology ofParasitism, a course renowned for plunging students headfirst intothe molecular workings of parasites and host/parasite interactions,for its faculty of top-notch parasitologists, and for its intensivelaboratory experiments. “My immediate goal was to obtain as muchbackground knowledge and experience in parasitology as possiblebefore I began my postdoc,” he says. “I knew I would benefit fromthe hands-on approach.”“In my other laboratory courses it was always apparent that they were cookie-cutter experimentswith a right and wrong conclusion. At the MBL it always felt as if we were doing ‘real’ science.”— Michael Povelones