Engaging Worms for Health

Worms as a Service

Supply of worms / snails and materials thereof

• Live or fixed Schistosoma mansoni worms of all developmental stages including miracidiae and cercariae.
• Adult worm antigens, soluble egg antigens, miracidial and cercarial extracts, monoclonal antibodies (prices).
• Schistosome-infected and uninfected Biomphalaria glabrata and Bulinus truncatus snails.
• Single sex-infected snails releasing either male or female cercariae only.
  
  

Custom testing of in vitro schistosomes for research purposes and vaccine development

Most high-throughput screening procedures are based on biochemical assays focusing on isolated interactions between single molecules. This artificial scenario, however, can only distantly reflect what is going on in a live organism. helminGuard's in vitro-cultured worms, by contrast, represent a MINI ANIMAL MODEL that delivers highly relevant in vivo information.

• Schistosoma mansoni (Puerto Rican strain or Liberian strain) are treated according to customers' demands.
• Mixed sex / couples or single sex (males, females).
• Testing can be performed on every developmental stage of the parasites.
  
  

Assessment of immunomodulatory side effects of drugs

• Effects on human blood cells present in the culture such as promotion or suppression of immune cell proliferation and cluster formation reveal immunomodulatory drug properties: see effects of praziquantel or antineoplastic drugs. This information helps predicting side effects of ANY kind of drug.
• Effects on phylogenetically conserved biological pathways in the worms can point at possible consequences of treatment with the respective compound in higher animals / humans.

Prices on request. Delivery methods and timings by agreement.