Schistosomes, a type of parasitic flatworm, are complex multicellular pathogens with an oversized and probably underestimated impact on human health. Schistosomiasis is one of the “neglected” tropical diseases, named in part because of a perceived lack of tools to probe parasite biology. On pages 1649 and 1644 of this issue, Wang et al. (1) and Wendt et al. (2), respectively, show that this neglect is unwarranted. With creative use of postgenomic and parasitological approaches, these authors uncover previously unknown aspects of schistosome biology, highlight avenues for intervention, and provide new resources for the field. Wang et al. report a loss-of-function screen that reveals numerous essential genes and identify small-molecule inhibitors of two kinases required for muscle development. Wendt et al. unveil a single-cell atlas for adult schistosomes, unearthing a gut stem cell lineage that can be targeted to eliminate egg production and pathology.

血吸虫是一种寄生性扁虫，是复杂的多细胞病原体，对人类健康的影响过大，而且可能被低估了。血吸虫病是“被忽视的”热带病之一，之所以命名，部分原因是人们认为缺乏探测寄生虫生物学的工具。Wang等人在本期的1649和1644页中。（1）和Wendt等。（2）分别表明，这种忽视是没有根据的。这些作者创造性地使用了后基因组学和寄生虫学方法，发现了血吸虫生物学以前未知的方面，突出了干预的途径，并为该领域提供了新的资源。Wang等。报告了一个功能丧失屏幕，该屏幕揭示了许多必需基因，并鉴定了肌肉发育所需的两种激酶的小分子抑制剂。Wendt等。揭露了用于成人血吸虫的单细胞图谱，发现了肠道干细胞谱系，可用于消除卵的产生和病理。