Scientists working in a range of disciplines joined forces to identify a new approach to combat African sleeping sickness. Fundamental research undertaken under the supervision of Professor Ute Hellmich of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has revealed a promising strategy to develop a suitable agent. “There is still a long way to go before we arrive at a pharmaceutical product,” said Hellmich. “But our highly interdisciplinary work involving parasitology, theoretical and organic chemistry, structural biology, and biochemistry has shown how the parasite that causes sleeping sickness can be rendered harmless.” The researchers succeeded in demonstrating how a specific inhibitory substance docks on to and deactivates a vital protein of the parasite.