A ground-breaking imaging system to track malarial infection of blood cells in real time has been created by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium falciparum parasites transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. The researchers have focused on a mysterious step in the life cycle of the parasite occurring inside the infected human's bloodstream. The parasites, at this stage called merozoites, attach to and enter red blood cells (RBCs) to develop and multiply. After two days, the new merozoites are released and infect neighbouring RBCs. Over several days, this process amplifies the number of parasitised RBCs and causes severe and potentially lethal symptoms in humans.

The researchers have developed a new imaging approach to investigate what happens when a merozoite first contacts a cell targeted for invasion. The microscope can not only run by itself for days, it can perform all the tasks that a human would otherwise be doing. It can refocus, it can find infected cells and zoom in, and when it detects a release of parasites it can change its imaging modality by going into a high frame-rate acquisition. And when the release has finished, it can search around in the culture to find another cell to monitor automatically.

Used in conjunction with other tools, the new technology will allow the researchers to test their hypotheses about the pre-invasion stage of the disease. They hope to determine the critical steps, which could provide clues as to how to stop an infection.

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