Apicomplexan Parasites Molecular Approaches toward Targeted Drug Development

This handbook deals with the discovery of drugs to fight apicomplexan parasites, a group of endoparasites that includes the causative agents of malaria, toxoplasmosis, and babesiosis, among others. Written by renowned scientific experts from academia and industry, the book focuses on current drug development approaches for all apicomplexan diseases, thus making it attractive to a large audience ranging from research labs in academia to the human and veterinarian pharmaceutical industry.This is the second volume in our exciting book series Drug Discovery in Infectious Diseases, edited by Prof. Paul M. Selzer.

Katja Becker obtained her degree in medicine from Heidelberg University. She carried out her doctoral thesis as well as her lecturing qualification at the Biochemistry Centre, Heidelberg, before obtaining a Junior Group Leader Position at the Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Wurzburg University. She has held the chair for nutritional biochemistry at the Justus-Liebig University Giessen since 2000. Her scientific focus is on the characterization of redox active proteins as drug targets, and she has produced more than 170 scientific publications and received numerous scientific awards, including the Carus Medal of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Leuckart Medal of the German Society for Parasitology. Professor Becker has been a member of the Leopoldina since June 2009. Paul M. Selzer studied biology, parasitology, and biochemistry at the University of Tubingen, Germany, where he also received his PhD in biochemistry. He spent three years at the Molecular Design Institute and the Parasitology and Tropical Disease Research Laboratory of Prof. James H. McKerrow at the University of California, San Francisco. During his career he has worked as a researcher and scientific manager for several pharmaceutical companies, and is currently employed by Intervet Innovation GmbH, Germany, part of a leading animal health company. He is also a visiting professor and teacher in biochemistry, bioinformatics, and chemoinformatics at the University of Tubingen, and an honorary professor of the Department of Infection and Immunity at the University of Glasgow, UK.