Parasitology News and Research

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Parasitology is the study of organisms that gain nutrients and protection from their host, without any benefit to the host.

Research breakthroughs may pave way for new drugs to fight against parasitic worm infections

Recent breakthroughs may pave the way for vaccines and new drugs for those infected by parasitic helminths. These flatworms, including tapeworms that cause hydatid diseases and neurocysticercosis, liver flukes, and blood flukes (schistosomes), infect more than 300 million people and cause approximately four million disability-adjusted life years lost due to chronic illness and death each year.

28 Oct 2014

Sequencing the Asian liver fluke genome: an interview with Dr Neil Young

Opisthorchis viverrini is a parasitic flatworm (or liver fluke) endemic throughout Thailand, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam and Cambodia. Humans are infected with this parasite when they eat a fluke encysted in inadequately cooked/preserved freshwater fish.

21 Sep 2014

LSU Health researchers reveal how Chop plays crucial role to combat cancer

Research led by Paulo Rodriguez, PhD, an assistant research professor of Microbiology, Immunology & Parasitology at LSU Health New Orleans' Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, has identified the crucial role an inflammatory protein known as Chop plays in the body's ability to fight cancer.

19 Sep 2014

Scientists crack genetic code of liver fluke parasite

Singapore-An international team of scientists from Singapore, Thailand, China and Australia has cracked the genetic code of the liver fluke parasite, Opisthorchis viverrini, using a unique DNA analysis technique developed at A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS).

11 Sep 2014

Vaccine for Chagas disease expected to be available within the next three years

The medical development has been tested in animal models, where it was observed that the disease stopped in 80 percent of cases; physicians expect similar results from a human control group.

29 Aug 2014

CAP awards accreditation to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

The Accreditation Committee of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) has awarded accreditation to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based on results of a recent on-site inspection as part of the CAP's Accreditation Programs.

12 Aug 2014

Scientists sequence genome of Asian liver fluke, a cancer-causing parasite

Scientists have sequenced the genome and characterised the genes of the Asian liver fluke, Opisthorchis viverrini. This parasite causes diseases that affect millions of people in Asia and is associated with a fatal bile duct cancer.

16 Jul 2014

Human impact on environment plays a larger role in spread of schistosomiasis, says study

National Museum of Natural History scientist Bert Van Bocxlaer and an international team of researchers revealed that anthropogenic changes in Africa's Lake Malaŵi are a driving force behind the increase of urogenital schistosomiasis, a debilitating tropical disease caused by parasitic flatworms.

22 May 2014

New laser method provides a better understanding on how genes are controlled, regulated

Almost every one of our cells has an entire copy of our genome. But only differing subsets of genes are active and expressed in any given cell.

21 May 2014

LSTM researchers to conduct extensive research on HIV and schistosomiasis coinfection in African children

Researchers from LSTM have called for more research to be carried out into HIV and schistosomiasis coinfection in children in sub-Saharan Africa.

18 Apr 2014

Research on HIV and schistosomiasis coinfection in sub-Saharan Africa children

Paper shows that more work is needed to fully understand the consequences of coinfection. Researchers from LSTM have called for more research to be carried out into HIV and schistosomiasis coinfection in children in sub-Saharan Africa.

17 Apr 2014

Bioline enters Epigenetics field with launch of new EPIK product range

Bioline, The PCR Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meridian Bioscience, Inc., announces that it has entered the rapidly growing Epigenetics field, with the launch of the first kits in the new EPIK™ product range; EPIK™ Fast Quantification Kit and EPIK™ Amplification Kit.

18 Feb 2014

Novel approaches could lead researchers to develop new vaccine for East Coast fever, malaria

The Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute announced today that a global consortium supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been formed to develop a new vaccine against a disease that's devastating cattle herds in sub-Saharan Africa. This highly advanced cattle vaccine project could also help malaria and cancer research in humans.

31 Jan 2014

Meridian's TRU FLU assay gets FDA clearance for analytical sensitivity claim for avian Influenza H7N9 strain

Meridian Bioscience, Inc. today announced that the company's TRU FLU assay received FDA clearance for an analytical sensitivity claim for the novel avian Influenza H7N9 strain, A/Anhui/1/2013. TRU FLU is a rapid immunoassay that detects influenza A and influenza B viruses in 15 minutes in human respiratory specimens.

10 Jan 2014

C. parvum and cryptosporidiosis: an interview with Dr. Momar Ndao, McGill University

Cryptosporidium parvum is one of the most common enteropathogens to affect humans in the world. The protozoan parasite causes a gut infection referred to as cryptosporidiosis.

8 Jan 2014

New tools for neglected diseases: an interview with Dr. BT Slingsby, CEO, GHIT Fund

Nearly 3.3 billion people, a little less than half of our world’s population, are at risk of malaria, TB and what we call “neglected tropical diseases”—diseases caused by worms, parasites, viruses and bacteria like Chagas disease, river blindness, elephantiasis, sleeping sickness, etc.

24 Dec 2013

Research proves effectiveness of vaccine against leishmaniasis

The disease is considered endemic in the south states of Mexico. A research executed in the Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY) has successfully proved, in test animals, the effectiveness of a vaccine that immunizes the organism against leishmaniasis, an ailment transmitted through insects very similar to mosquitos and mainly presents symptoms in the skin, liver or spleen.

3 Dec 2013

Scientists identify new approach to fight malaria parasites

Using advanced methodologies that pit drug compounds against specific types of malaria parasite cells, an international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, have identified a potential new weapon and approach for attacking the parasites that cause malaria.

28 Nov 2013

Researchers identify protein in malaria that is inhibited by newly discovered anti-malarial compounds

Researchers have identified the protein in malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites that is inhibited by a newly discovered class of anti-malarial compounds known as imidazopyrazines.