Scientists have cracked the genetic codes of the parasites that cause three of the world’s most devastating tropical diseases. Their analysis, published on Friday in the journal Science, opens the way to developing the first safe and effective treatments for sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis.

A large international consortium has worked for over 10 years with $32m (€26.5m, £18m) in funding from the Wellcome Trust, US National Institutes of Health and other agencies to sequence the genomes of the three “trypanosomatid” parasites.