Cell death in parasites

血吸虫病是一种由称为血吸虫的寄生虫引起的疾病。由于目前单一药物的使用可能导致耐药性，因此迫切需要新的药物。我在血吸虫体内发现了一种新的细胞死亡机制，现在我的目标是解开这种细胞死亡途径是如何工作的，并确定寄生虫生存所需的参与者。下一步将是开发中和这些支持生存的分子的活性的分子，从而导致寄生虫死亡。

Schistosomiasis is a disease caused by parasites known as schistosomes. As the current use of a single drug could lead to resistance, there is an urgency for new drugs. I discovered a novel cell death machinery in schistosomes and I now aim to unravel how this cell death pathway works and to identify the players required for parasite survival. The next step will then be to develop molecules that neutralize the activity of these pro-survival molecules hence leading to parasite death.