We took an oath to declare dangers when we found them. We’re doing that again today.

Mark Bray says threats intensified after a Turning Point USA petition accused him of promoting political violence

From reptiles and Tasmanian devils to humans, one researcher zooms in on unseen features of the brain and liver cells, like the cytoskeleton.

This time on The Microscopists, we're joined by Christophe Leterrier, team leader at NeuroCyto in Marseille and director of a Nikon Center of Excellence for super-resolution microscopy.Christophe r...

Background Study of malaria parasite cell biology is challenged by their small size, which can make visualisation of individual organelles difficult or impossible using conventional light microscopy. In recent years, the field has attempted to overcome this challenge through the application of ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U-ExM), which physically expands a biological sample approximately 4.5-fold. To date, U-ExM has mostly been used to visualise blood-stage parasites and used exclusively on parasites in vitro. Methods Here we develop Mosquito Tissue U-ExM (MoTissU-ExM), a method for preparing dissected mosquito salivary glands and midguts by U-ExM. MoTissU-ExM preserves both host and parasite ultrastructure, enabling visualisation of oocysts and sporozoites in situ. We also provide a point-by-point protocol for how to perform MoTissU-ExM. Results We validate that MoTissU-ExM samples expand as expected, provide a direct comparison of the same dissected tissues before and after MoTissU-ExM, and highlight some of the key host and parasite structures that can be visualised following MoTissU-ExM. Discussion We discuss potential use cases for MoTissU-ExM for study of malaria parasite biology, and more broadly. We detail drawbacks or challenges MoTissU-ExM and imaging these expanded tissues, along with information troubleshooting this technique. Finally, we discuss how MoTissU-ExM could be applied and adapted in future to increase its utility.

Author summary Malaria parasites complete their life-cycle within mammalian and mosquito hosts requiring specialised forms to invade and establish infection in host tissue. In order to transmit to the...

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

Nature Communications - Cells can regulate their mass density. Here, the authors demonstrate how eukaryotes establish and maintain a lower density in the nucleus than in the cytoplasm via pressure...

Study says small editor group handled many problematic manuscripts — and a Nature investigation finds out who they are.

Senate budget bill includes small increase for the health-research agency — but faces a long road before being signed into law. Senate budget bill includes small increase for the health-research agency — but faces a long road before being signed into law.

Malaria parasite fertilization occurs in the midgut of a female Anopheles mosquito. Blocking fertilization within the mosquito can prevent malaria transmission. Plasmodium falciparum Pfs230 and Pfs48/...