Giovanni Battista Grassi

Who was Giovanni Battista Grassi?

Giovanni Battista Grassi was an Italian physician and zoologist, most well known for his pioneering works on parasitology, especially on malariology. He also worked on the embryological development of honey bees, on heminth parasites, the vine parasite phylloxera, on migrations and metamorphosis in eels, and on termites. He was the first to describe and establish the life cycle of the human malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and discovered that only female anopheline mosquitoes are capable of transmitting the disease.