Laser optical tweezers provide insights into malaria parasites' RBC invasion

Researchers have found interactions between the malaria-causing parasite and red blood cells using a tool called laser optical tweezers.

The study found surprising new insights into malaria biology that could pave the way for the development of more effective drugs or vaccines for life-threatening disease caused by a parasite that invades one red blood cell after another and affects hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Study author Julian Rayner of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute said that using laser tweezers to study red blood cell invasion provides an unprecedented level of control over the whole process and will help in understanding this critical process at a level of detail that has not been possible before.

The study was published in the Biophysical Journal.