Parasitology is the scientific discipline that investigates parasites—organisms that live in or on a host and derive resources at the host’s expense—along with their hosts and the environments that shape these interactions. It encompasses the biology, life cycles, genetics, ecology, and evolution of protozoan, helminth, and arthropod parasites, as well as host immune responses and mechanisms of pathogenesis. Parasitology underpins diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of parasitic diseases in humans, animals, and plants, integrating tools from molecular biology, immunology, epidemiology, and vector biology to elucidate transmission dynamics, drug resistance, and control strategies.
A new study has uncovered a hidden step that helps the deadliest malaria parasite survive and multiply inside the human body. Researchers studying Plasmodium falciparum found that the parasite relies on a brief but essential ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 4, 2026
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21
An international research team headed by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and the Center for Structural Systems Biology and Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Germany has revealed ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 2, 2026
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A recent review of over 312 studies has identified dozens of unique uses of roadkill in scientific research. The review, published in Biology Letters, discusses the advantages of using roadkill instead of live wildlife and ...
A University of California, Riverside team of scientists has found that Toxoplasma gondii, a common parasite affecting up to one-third of the global population, is far more complex than previously believed. The findings, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 27, 2026
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20
New research led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) warns that hybrid forms of the parasites that cause schistosomiasis are undermining existing disease control strategies and could accelerate the spread of infection ...
Evolution
Jan 9, 2026
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244
With victims numbering in the millions, malaria is an infectious disease caused by the bite of a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite. After penetrating the skin, the pathogen moves with helical trajectories. It almost ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 24, 2025
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19
UC Davis nematologists, including Valerie Williamson, professor emerita in the Department of Plant Pathology, and associate professor Shahid Siddique, Department of Entomology and Nematology, have long wondered how a plant-parasitic ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Nov 19, 2025
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63
Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by sand flies, has long challenged veterinarians and public health experts alike. Found in humans and animals across Israel and many other parts of the world, the disease's intricate ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Nov 11, 2025
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33
A new study has unexpectedly discovered that a common parasite of modern oysters actually started infecting bivalves hundreds of millions of years before the dinosaurs went extinct.
Ecology
Nov 4, 2025
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160
Rajshekhar Gaji was staring at something that should not exist. Under his microscope, parasites that should have been thriving were instead dying—completely unable to survive without a protein his lab had managed to switch ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 15, 2025
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