Further evaluation and validation of HybridoMed Diff 1000 and its comparison to Basch medium for the cell-free culture of Schistosoma mansoni juvenile worm stages

Schistosomules of the human parasite Schistosoma mansoni are vital for research focusing on fundamental functional/developmental biology schistosomes and many anti-schistosomal drug discovery programmes. Through further evaluation validation a recently tested media, HybridoMed Diff 1000 (HM), cell-free culture juvenile schistosomules, we show that while Basch medium was superior to HM survival/development represents viable attractive alternative somule culture, particularly early liver stage. Adoption schistosomule could facilitate more standardised approaches, which screening should enable improved multi-centre target-hit evaluation.