Coordination Funds

寄生现象是两个物种之间的亲密对抗关系，一直吸引着来自不同学科的科学家。传统上，寄生虫学主要关注器官的研究，而今天的寄生虫学侧重于医学相关的细胞和分子机制，在不断增加的深度。优先方案“寄生虫物理学”确定了这一领域的新前沿，即寄生虫与其宿主相互作用的物理学。这种相互作用是由寄生虫的解剖结构（Baoplan），它们的运动物理学以及它们与宿主结构的附着力学控制的。寄生虫已经进化了很多次，因此，对于如何在物理上劫持宿主的挑战，有许多收敛的解决方案。这些长期的共同进化使寄生虫具有高度的最优性。例如，寄生工具，如吸盘和护罩，或改进的机车设备，允许在各种体液中，在拥挤和密闭的空间中，以及在高粘性环境中附着和导航-通常以惊人的高速度。优先计划将研究寄生的物理学，使用选择互补和易处理的寄生虫，殖民代表主机壁龛。这些包括寄生原生生物，如疟原虫、弓形虫和锥虫，以及后生动物寄生虫，如血吸虫、片形吸虫和棘球绦虫。我们的最终目标是阐述一个比较和定量的物理约束和机械力作用在动态寄生虫-主机接口的框架。我们将测量寄生虫在其壁龛中的材料特性和力学，揭示其运动的物理基础，并确定其附着的机械和物理基础。为了实现这些目标，优先计划独特地结合了寄生虫学，分子细胞生物学，实验和理论物理学，数学和模拟科学的专业知识。通过这种方式，“寄生虫物理学”在寄生虫学和生命物理学中开辟了新的篇章。我们设想，在我们的跨学科努力中获得的结果可能会暴露出基于机械生物学的对抗寄生虫病的新方法，而抵抗寄生虫病的能力不太可能进化。

Parasitism, the intimate antagonistic liaison between two species, has always fascinated scientists from a variety of disciplines. Traditionally, parasitology was concerned mainly with organismic studies, while today’s parasitology focuses on medically-relevant cellular and molecular mechanisms, at ever-increasing depth. The priority programme “Physics of Parasitism” defines a new frontier in this field, namely the physics of parasites interacting with their hosts. This interaction is controlled by the anatomy of the parasites (Bauplan), the physics of their locomotion, and the mechanics of their attachment to host structures. Parasitism has evolved many times and hence, there are numerous convergent solutions to the challenge of how to physically hijack a host. These long periods of co-evolution have equipped parasites with high degrees of optimality. Examples are parasitic tools such as suckers and shields, or refined locomotive devices that allow attachment and also navigation in various body fluids, in crowded and confined spaces, and in highly viscous environments - often at surprisingly high speeds. The priority programme will study the physics of parasitism using a selection of complementary and tractable parasites that colonise representative host niches. These include parasitic protists such as Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, and Trypanosoma, as well as metazoan parasites such as Schistosoma, Fasciola, and Echinococcus. We ultimately aim to elaborate a comparative and quantitative framework of the physical constraints and mechanical forces acting at the dynamic parasite-host interfaces. We will measure the material properties and mechanics of parasites in their niches, uncover the physical basis of their locomotion, and determine the mechanical and physical basis for their attachment. To reach these goals, the priority programme uniquely combines expertise from parasitology, molecular cell biology, experimental and theoretical physics, mathematics and simulation science. In this way, “Physics of Parasitism” opens new chapters in both parasitology and the physics of life. We envisage that the results obtained during our interdisciplinary endeavour might expose novel ways of combating parasitic diseases based on mechanobiology, against which resistances are unlikely to evolve.