Cindy is a second year Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics major who recently joined the Hallem lab where she studies the host-seeking behaviors of Strongyloides. In particular, she studies how mechanosensation, a host-emitted sensory cue, may affect how they find and locate hosts. Cindy uses the infective larvae of the rat-parasitic nematode Strongyloides ratti as a model system to measure and compare the nictation rate of S. ratti infective larvae in the presence and absence of 50 Hz vibrations. The lab hopes that these results could help develop novel preventative and therapeutic measures against infections by Strongyloides stercoralis, which poses a significant disease burden in underdeveloped countries.