**6. Conclusions and future perspectives**

*Cryptosporidium* is a major cause of diarrhoeal disease in humans worldwide, yet an effective therapy to eradicate the parasite is not available. Also, the diagnosis options remain limited in developing countries, which harm the surveillance and understanding of the epidemiology in resource-poor settings. In developed countries, large waterborne outbreaks in drinking and recreational water continue to occur, emphasising the need for better regulation and for improvements of drinking water treatment processes and control guidelines. However, in recent years, significant improvements have been achieved in understanding the key concepts

of the organism, mainly by increasing the use of molecular methods and genome sequences. Recent advancements in knowledge of *Cryptosporidium* provide the basis for the development of effective and practical strategies for the future prevention and control of cryptosporidiosis. The data from *Cryptosporidium* genome sequences have already improved our understanding of the metabolism and cellular processes. In fact, mining the genome and proteome data of *Cryptosporidium* will allow the development of new classes of compounds and molecular targets. However, it is worth underscoring the need for community-wide efforts to generate and integrate high-quality functional datasets that span the full spectrum of biology and life cycles in order to improve the predictive nature of models generated from large-scale system-based resources. Transcriptomes and proteomics from different growth stages are starting to be generated and promise to provide further insight into the biology of *Cryptosporidium*. Also, future studies will require careful validation and follow-up of each finding using in vitro and animal model studies.
