On Sept. 10, 2014, an international team of scientists from Singapore, Thailand, China and Australia announced that they had cracked the genetic code of the liver fluke parasite, Opisthorchis viverrini. The breakthrough was published in Nature Communications.

Opisthorchis viverrini is a trematode that infects millions in Asia, and it is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The prevalence of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) in Southeast Asia is much higher than other areas of the world. Eating raw, fermented, or undercooked cyprinid fish, infected with the liver fluke, results in chronic biliary inflammation, periductal fibrosis, and increased cancer risk.