Associate Curator, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, and Curator of the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life

Dr. Mark Siddall © Denis Finnin / AMNH

Mark Siddall's research focuses on the evolutionary history of parasitic organisms and their coevolution with their respective hosts. Dr. Siddall is currently studying leeches, protozoan parasites of fishes and of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, and the phylogeny of malaria. Dr. Siddall's work in determining the phylogenetic relationships of blood-feeding leeches is providing a predictive framework for determining which species, in addition to the European medicinal leech, will prove useful for biomedical use, including microsurgery and anticoagulant therapy. This research—of particular significance because the European medicinal leech is endangered in most of its natural habitats—has already led to an understanding that the various species of leeches that do not feed on blood nonetheless have ancestors that did, suggesting that even these non-sanguivorous species can be expected to harbor anticoagulant genes. Dr. Siddall's work on the evolutionary history of MSX, a disease in oysters, has led to the conclusion that MSX emerged in the Chesapeake Bay in the 1950s through the introduction of the Japanese oyster, which has since perished but whose parasite lives on. Dr. Siddall received a B.Sc. in microbiology and his Ph.D. in parasitology from the University of Toronto. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, from 1994 to 1996, and Assistant Professor of Biology and a Michigan Society Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from 1996 to 1999, when he joined the Museum.