Parasites cause serious, health-depriving, disabling diseases affecting people and animals alike and are globally distributed, prevalent, heterogeneous and extremely complex. The Research Training Group (RTG) 2046 met the necessity and growing demand for interdisciplinarily educated, versatile parasitologists and embedded 64 doctoral researchers into the program in 9 years. Two PhD students were funded by the Einstein Foundation Berlin. Research focused on four core parasite groups of medical and veterinary importance: Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, Giardia and helminths. The research program addressed research questions in an exemplary manner on molecular mechanisms such as metabolic peculiarities of parasites or drug resistance that may lead to new druggable pathways. In parallel, cellular aspects were in focus that represent the basis of host immunity or disease pathology and expanded the knowledge base for vaccine development. And finally, organismic aspects were studied to assess parasites' impact on host populations and their lifetime performance, which generated basic insights into parasite-host ecological relationships. These research topics were part of an educational concept of RTG 2046 for training a new generation of parasitologists.
The primary training goal was to foster scientists who possess state of the art command of specialty research skills, insightful knowledge of the breadth of parasitology and who are well versed in interdisciplinary approaches. This was achieved by integrating molecular and cellular aspects with organismic perspectives on our four core parasite groups through the research program and the doctoral researchers attending bespoke courses and workshops. The next generation of parasitologists hosted 124 scientists, which helped the doctoral researchers to built up a huge scientific network. The doctoral researchers attended >300 scientific meetings and the RTG 2046 published 125 scientific manuscripts. Content-related education was complemented by comprehensive training in soft and transferable skills. Hence, RTG 2046 equipped a next generation of parasitologists with the skills necessary to undertake advanced scientific studies of parasite infections in experimental as well as natural systems. It prepared the parasitologists for a career in life sciences, the pharmaceutical industry, international agencies or national authorities