{"id":8057,"date":"2026-07-31T13:56:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T01:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/?p=8057"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T02:00:37","slug":"digging-deeper-unitec-lecturer-kate-harder-embarks-on-phd-journey-into-feline-lungworm-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/?p=8057","title":{"rendered":"Digging Deeper: Unitec Lecturer Kate Harder Embarks on PhD Journey into Feline Lungworm Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Unitec\u2019s School of Environmental and Animal Sciences is proud to celebrate one of its own as lecturer\u00a0Kate Harder prepares to take the next exciting step in her academic journey beginning her\u00a0PhD at James Cook University in association with the Applied Molecular Solutions (AMS) research centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervised by a team of parasitology and molecular experts, Dr Richard Bradbury,\u00a0Dr Constantin Constantinoiu, <\/strong>and Applied Molecular Solution’s own\u00a0Dr Sarah Wells, Kate will be diving into a significantly under-researched area in New Zealand: the feline lungworm, Aelurostrongylus abstrusus<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her research aims to shed light on the\u00a0prevalence of this elusive parasite\u00a0in local feline populations, a topic with growing clinical relevance in veterinary medicine. Using a multi-pronged diagnostic approach, including\u00a0faecal flotation,\u00a0formalin acetate sedimentation, and (where possible)\u00a0clinical trials of tracheal washes, Kate hopes to assess not only how widespread the infection may be in Auckland, but also whether\u00a0less invasive detection methods\u00a0can be effectively used as alternatives to tracheal washing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This project builds on Kate\u2019s growing experience in\u00a0genetic diagnostics, honed through her work in the AMS laboratory. With a passion for turning laboratory data into real-world veterinary insight, Kate is enthusiastic about applying molecular tools to improve the health and wellbeing of New Zealand\u2019s companion animals. We wish Kate every success as she embarks on this ambitious and much-needed research and look forward to seeing her discoveries make their way from the lab bench to the veterinary clinic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unitec\u2019s School of Environmental and Animal Sciences is proud to celebrate one of its own as lecturer\u00a0Kate Harder prepares to take the next exciting step in her academic journey beginning her\u00a0PhD at James Cook University in association with the Applied… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-research-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8057"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8070,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8057\/revisions\/8070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/ams\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}