Parasitology Research: An Australian Tradition

Australia has excelled at parasitology research for more than a century and parasitology and parasitologists have left an indelible impression on the Australian scientific landscape.

In the early days of Australian science, parasitology was considered a very "hot" field of research. When the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) was first created its chairman was Sir Ian Clunies Ross, a veterinary parasitologist, famous for his research on hydatids (Echinococcus granulosus), liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) and the dog paralysis tick (Ixodes holocyclus).

Australia's two largest medical research institutes are also linked historically to great parasitologists:

• The Bancroft Centre, home of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), in Brisbane, is named in honour of Sir Joseph Bancroft (1836-1894), an early parasitologist, best known for his discovery of the filarial worm, Wucheria bancrofti, a cause of the terrible disease, elephantiasis;
• The first director of the QIMR was also one of Australia's pioneering parasitologists, Professor Ian Mackerras (1898-1980), who made several landmark discoveries on the biology and control of sheep blowflies, buffalo flies and the Anopheles punctulatus complex as vectors of malaria in the southwest Pacific;

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne also has a distinguished history of parasitological research, in no small part due to the foresight of Sir Gustav Nossal, its Director from 1965 to 1996, who encouraged the development of molecular and immunological parasitology and made key appointments including Graham Mitchell (AO), who established a dynamic group focused on tropical diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Today Australia's parasitology research "punches well above its weight" ' with a very high record of publication in the world's most respected journals (see brief selection in the accompanying Register of Australian Parasitology Researchers). For instance, Australia publishes more papers on malaria per capita than any other nation.

Australian parasitology researchers also excel at delivering practical solutions in the fight to manage and control parasites and the diseases they cause.

Today Australia is home to world leading researchers in:

• vaccine development
• parasite immunology
• molecular parasitology
• malaria
• drug resistance
• parasite ecology

Australia's Parasitology Researchers: Leading the Way

Australian research has provided important clues to the way the immune system responds to a parasite infection (the first step to developing a vaccine) including:

• Developing pioneering technologies such as a method for screening expression libraries with antibodies - this method, originally applied to the isolation of antigens from the malaria parasite, has become one of the most widely used approaches in immunoparasitology;
• Identifying the first T-cell epitope in an antigen from the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Affecting profoundly the way we approach anti-parasite vaccine design;
• Demonstrating the protective role of cytotoxic T-cells in immunity to Theileria in cattle ' a discovery that led to a strategic change in the delivery of live vaccines;
• Defining the role of eosinophils in the control of helminth parasites.

Australian researchers have provided the key for many vaccines against human and animal parasites including:

• The development of world-first subunit vaccines for diseases caused by:
• Helminth parasites (Taenia ovis, Taenia saginata, Echinococcus granulosus);
• Protozoan parasites (Eimeria species) - a subunit vaccine is marketed in several countries as CoxAbic®); and
• Ectoparasites (the cattle tick, Boophilus microplus).
• The isolation and development of unique isolates of parasites which form the basis of live vaccines against protozoan infections in cattle such as Babesia and Neospora.
• The development of a standardised vaccine against human leishmaniasis;
• The development of an experimental DNA vaccine against Leishmania that has both prophylactic and therapeutic potential.

Australian scientists are leaders in parasite biodiversity and ecology research, giving the world model examples of sustainable control practices:

• Implementing control strategies leading to the virtual eradication of hookworm infection in a remote community in northwestern Australia (the incidence of infection was previously greater than 90% in children);
• Pioneering the use of parasites as biological control agents for vertebrate pests.
• Earning Australia the reputation as "the home of hydatid research", in particular the success of the Tasmanian hydatid eradication campaign, which has served as a model for control programs around the world;
• Implementing a ground-breaking drug resistance management program for the Australian sheep industry;
• Leading the world in documenting parasite biodiversity, ecology and evolution, describing, for example, over 100 new species of marine trematodes and elucidating unique parasite lifecycles, especially in Australia's native fauna;
• Being the first to quantify the impact of parasitism on wild aquatic populations and provided predictive simulations of host/parasite associations, leading to the development of strategies for minimizing disease impact and measuring environmental health using parasitism as a biomarker;
• Dramatically improving our understanding of how population and quantitative genetics can be applied to improve the design of parasite control strategies for parasites such as Giardia, Echinococcus and Ostertagia;
• Leading the world in the modeling of environmental changes associated with global warming, including the associated changes in parasite transmission and impact.

Australia's scientists are simply the best in malaria research. They have:

• Played vital roles in the recently completed international collaboration to map the malaria genome;
• Been the first to demonstrate the use of an antisense vector in the genetic manipulation of the malaria parasite and established a Plasmodium transfection system that allows unprecedented examination of key genes of the parasite, exposing potential vulenerabilities;
• Made major contributions to understanding the molecular basis of functional changes in the malaria-infected red blood cell as well as unraveling the unique biochemistry of the malaria parasite;
• Been world leaders in documenting the crucial molecular events in the manifestation of the deadly cerebral malaria;
• Completed the most comprehensive study of speciation and distribution of Anopheline mosquitoes, the vectors for malaria;
• Been the first to take a recombinant asexual blood stage antigen into filed vaccine trials.

Australia's research into defeating malaria is desperately needed.