Playing with worms to unlock the mystery of nature

Creatures that live by obtaining nutrients from other creatures are called parasites. All animals are inhabited by any of the parasites. There are a variety of parasites with very unique lifestyles.

The parasites infecting both humans and animals (zoonotic parasites) sometimes cause serious problems for us. We work in collaboration with research institutes in Japan and overseas to study parasitic infectious diseases that are attracting global attention and their vector arthropods.

We conduct field surveys to search for parasites and study how parasites live in the nature. We also try to unlock the mystery of their life in the laboratory using multiple approaches such as molecular, genomic, and microbiome analyses.

 

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