This volume covers the most important parasitic protists that are known to infect humans. The pathogens discussed cause diseases like toxoplasmosis, malaria, cryptosporidiosis, leishmaniasis, amoebiasis, trichomoniasis, and giardiasis. Readers from microbiology will appreciate the special focus on protist cell biology. As demonstrated in several of the chapters, these parasites are characterized by peculiar structures and organelles that cannot be found in mammalian cells - even though both are eukaryotic.

The book employs light and electron microscopy to display the changing morphology in various stages of parasitic development. In turn, the results are supplemented by transcriptome and proteome profiles that help to describe how these changes take place on a molecular level. Both researchers and clinicians from tropical medicine will find essential and practically applicable background information on these increasingly important pathogens.

Wanderley de Souza is Professor of Cell Biology and Parasitology at Rio de Janeiro Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He received a MD in 1974 and a PhD in 1978. He was a visiting scientist at Harvard University, Boulder University, Illinois University, Glasgow University, and Cinvestav in Mexico. During his career, he published over 600 papers in international journals, most of them dealing with parasites such as Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania, Toxoplasma gondii, Trichomonas vaginalis and Giardia lamblia. His focus of work has been the use of modern microscopy techniques (light, scanning and transmission electron microscopy) in association with biochemical, molecular and immunological techniques to analyze the structural organization of the protozoa as well as their interaction with host cells. He has been a member of the editorial board of several journals such as Acta Microscopica, BMC Microbiology, Experimental Parasitology, Frontiers in Immunology, Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, Micron, Parasitology International, Parasitology Research, among others. He edited several books, including one from the Microbiology Monographs series entitled 'Structures and Organelles in Pathogenic Protists'. He has been president of several national and international scientific societies in the areas of Parasitology and Microscopy. He also occupied several administrative positions such as Rector of the North Fluminense State University, State Secretary for Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology of Brazil, and President of Finep, the main Brazilian agency that supports the establishment of scientific infrastructure in Brazil.