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A sharper look at malaria

(PhysOrg.com) -- In work that could lead to new ways of detecting and treating malaria, MIT researchers have used two advanced microscopy techniques to show in unprecedented detail how the malaria parasite attacks red blood cells.
The researchers' images show red blood cell membranes becoming less flexible, which causes the cells to clump as they try to navigate tiny blood vessels. They also show the destruction of hemoglobin, the critical molecule that red blood cells use to carry oxygen.

The images are made possible by microscopy techniques that reveal tiny vibrations in red blood cell membranes.

"By studying the way the cell membrane vibrations progressively change as the malaria parasite matures inside the cell, we can study the changes in its mechanical, elastic and dynamic properties," said Michael Feld, director of MIT's George Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory and a professor of physics.

Feld and Subra Suresh, dean of MIT's School of Engineering, are senior authors of a paper on the work to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Sept. 1.

The study establishes the first experimental connection between cell membrane vibration and the pathological state of a living cell.

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