About the 50 Helminths Project

Despite their global importance both medically and economically, parasitic helminth (worm) research remained relatively untouched by genomics compared to other infectious disease agents. Worm infections account for morbidity equivalent to that of malaria or tuberculosis and more than one billion people are infected globally every year.

The 50 Helminth Genomes project is working, in collaboration with the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University and Edinburgh Genomics, to:

• Produce draft genomes for many of the most important parasites of humans and animals
• Fill out the phylogenetic space around current high quality reference helminth genomes
• Identify major differences between parasite lineages