To date, there are no vaccines against any of the major parasitic diseases, and chemotherapy is the main weapon in our arsenal. There is an urgent need for better drugs against Leishmania. With the completion of the human genome sequence and soon that of Leishmania, for the first time we have the opportunity to identify novel chemotherapeutic treatments. This requires the exploitation of a variety of technologies. The major challenge is to take the process from discovery of drug candidates all the way along the arduous path to the marketplace. A crucial component will be the forging of partnerships between the pharmaceutical industry and publicly funded scientists to ensure that the promise of the current revolution in biology lives up to our hopes and expectations.

中文翻译：

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抗利什曼病的药物：技术和伙伴关系的协同作用。

迄今为止，还没有针对任何主要寄生虫病的疫苗，化学疗法是我们武器库中的主要武器。迫切需要更好的抗利什曼原虫药物。随着人类基因组序列的完成以及利什曼原虫序列的完成，我们第一次有机会确定新型的化学治疗方法。这需要利用多种技术。面临的主要挑战是从寻找候选药物的过程一直到艰辛的市场。一个关键的组成部分将是制药业与政府资助的科学家之间建立合作伙伴关系，以确保当前生物学革命的希望不辜负我们的希望和期望。