Once the researchers determine this, they can consider ways to block infection by interfering with the schistosomes' ability to find human hosts.
"If we understand the chemotactic machinery of this organism well -- where are the sensory neurons, how does it couple to its swimming behavior, how does it couple to its muscles -- there are lots of small molecules that we can use to really interfere directly," Praskash said.
In order to enter a human's skin, a schistosome has to generate a great deal of force." It's almost like a motor that's designed to operate at stall forces," Prakash said. "It can produce very high forces while it's not physically actually moving, so there are all these fascinating questions that are connected -- why would a system evolve like this?