Each year Parasitology hosts an open competition for authors and readers to submit either photographs or associated computer graphic imagery. In so doing, we hope to capture the essence of contemporary parasitological research across the world. This year two submissions were finally chosen by the editorial team.

The 2026 winner is Dr Beatriz Cancino-Faure, Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile, who submitted a photomicrograph of Acanthocheilonema reconditum as seen within a canine blood smear, stained by Giemsa. Once thought rather benign, infections with this filarial worm are now becoming of veterinary concern across parts of South America.  

In second place was Dr Fernando Sanchez-Valdez, University of Georgia, United States for his striking colorful image of intracellular of amastigotes Trypanosoma cruzi within human Vero cells using ultrastructure expansion microscopy.

The Parasitology Editorial Team congratulates both Beatriz and Fernando and sincerely thanks all who submitted their imagery this year.