York Guides

Scientists in the Immunology and Infection Unit are part of an international collaboration which has sequenced the genomes of single-celled parasites which cause the disease Leishmaniasis in humans.
The York team is headed by Professor Deborah Smith – a founder member of the Leishmania Genome Network, which was set up 10 years ago by the World Health Organisation.
She is one of more than 100 collaborators around the world who are involved in published research, including the major DNA sequencing centres in the UK and United States.
The research – published this week in the journal Science – will help scientists to discover viable treatments for the infections, which also include African Sleeping Sickness and Chagas's
Disease, which is widespread in Central and South America.
The scientific paper is the first of a series to be published on the genomes of three related parasitic organisms – called the Tri-Tryp genomes – that cause
devastating diseases in tropical regions around the
world.
Prof Smith said: "It has been 10 years of escalating scientific progress and increasing technical know-how to get to this point.
"It is a big moment for those of us involved. This information will set the scene for identifying novel drug targets and vaccine candidates to prevent these devastating human diseases."
The researchers are now working with scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute who are sequencing the genomes of three species of the Leishmaniasis parasite, including those that cause the most lethal visceral forms of Leishmaniasis.
"It is spread by sand flies and affects the liver and spleen – killing more than 100,000 people, mainly children, each year.
York University's £1.8m Immunology and Infection Unit is a joint initiative by its Biology Department and the Hull York Medical School. A second group at the York unit working on Leishmaniasis is headed by Prof Paul Kaye.
The Department of Biology at York is one of the country's leading research and teaching centres, attracting £8m per year of external funding and employing nearly 300 scientists. In 2002 it moved into new £25m laboratories funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council with support from Yorkshire Cancer Research.