Infections by parasites, together with starvation, insufficient shelter, and lack of clean water sources, are some of the greatest barriers to health in the world’s growing population. To date, approximately one-third of the world population is infected at some time in their life with parasites, and many times their lives are threatened by such infections. Since most cases of parasitic disease occur with mild, obscure symptoms or none at all, it becomes increasingly difficult for patients to obtain accurate diagnosis and treatment in a timely fashion. Moreover, there are currently no accessible and effective vaccines against parasites and they are highly prevalent in developing and tropical countries. On the other hand, developed countries display very low rates of these kinds of infections, mainly because the higher living standards favor cleaner environments. However, such low rates of parasitic diseases in such countries are now believed to favor many deregulated immune responses, which, in turn, contribute to other diseases such as allergy, autoimmunity, and cancer.

The ever growing knowledge of parasitic diseases at different levels, including life cycle, structure, molecular biology, and development of new drugs and vaccines, as well as its ability to escape or modulate different host defense mechanisms, is essential to better development of therapies and diagnostics. Thus, we invite scientists from all over the world to collaborate with original papers and reviews. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Immunity against helminths and protozoa
• Modulating immune responses by parasites
• New molecular diagnostics of parasitic diseases
• miRNAs that regulate parasite growth or differentiation
• miRNAs in the immune response to parasites
• Interaction between parasites and vectors
• Mechanisms of invasion
• Innate immunity and early recognition of helminths and protozoa
• Parasites and autoimmunity
• Parasites and cancer
• Effector cells against parasitic diseases

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/bmri/parasitology/icbpd14/ according to the following timetable: