Our research group analyses, from different points of view, parasite-host relationships in intestinal parasitosis and their implications in the clinical and epidemiology of these parasitosis. Several approaches are used in order to develop strategies to design control tools for these parasitosis. On the one hand, phenotypic alterations are studied, with emphasis on the differential regulation of proteins and post-translational modifications that a host species induces in intestinal parasites and their relationship with the establishment of a chronic infection or the natural expulsion of the parasite. Likewise, we also analyse the alterations that these parasites induce in the host intestine at the immunological and proteomic level in order to establish the factors that determine their capacity to eliminate the parasite and generate resistance to infection or, on the contrary, those that determine the establishment of chronic infections. 

For these studies, our research group uses intestinal helminths as experimental models, mainly the Digeneid Trematode Echinostoma caproni (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) due to its great facility to infect different species of laboratory animals with a different course of infection in each of them. On the other hand, our group also analyses, from an epidemiological point of view, the current situation of different intestinal parasitosis both locally and internationally. The aim of this work is the diagnostic and epidemiological study of intestinal parasitosis in different areas of the world, with emphasis on populations living in poverty and/or social exclusion. Different types of diagnostic techniques are used, including etiological, immunological and molecular methods. The collection of these data can be useful and their correlation with socio-economic and hygienic variables can be very useful for the issuing of recommendations aimed at designing programmes for the control, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of specific conditions by the health authorities in the region.

Other research and experimental development on natural sciences and engineering