Congratulations to Kristel Sanchez whose paper, “Toxins or medicines? Phytoplankton diets mediate host and parasite fitness in a freshwater system” has just been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.  Kristel’s research shows that the toxins produced by some phytoplankton, like Microcystis, can protect Daphnia from infection by their fungal parasites.  Moreover, spore production by bacterial pathogens declines when Daphnia consume certain algal toxins.  It appears that some phytoplankton can serve as medicines for Daphnia – Kristel’s future work will explore whether Daphnia can actually increase their consumption of medicinal phytoplankton when they get sick.  You can read more about the research in this news release.  Many congratulations, Kristel!