WEHI Special ID2 Seminar hosted by Dr Simona Seizova
 

Dr Benjamin Liffner
Senior Research Associate – School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology  - The University of Adelaide

Using expansion microscopy to explore the previously invisible cell biology of malaria parasites

L7W Seminar Room

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

Light microscopy is perhaps the most important tool in the study of cell biology, and decades have been spent developing new microscopy techniques to enable us to look at ever-smaller details. Recent years have seen the development of a technique called expansion microscopy (ExM), which instead of looking closer at a sample physically increases its size ~4.5-fold, enabling visualisation of dramatically smaller cellular structures without the need upgrading microscopy infrastructure. My research uses a variant of ExM called ultrastructural-ExM (U-ExM), which results in isotropic preservation of cellular ultrastructure following expansion. I have used U-ExM to study the cell biology of parasites, primarily malaria parasites where individual organelles were previously difficult or impossible to observe using light microscopy. Using U-ExM, we generated an ‘atlas’ for the development of malaria parasites inside red blood cells by imaging their growth over time using markers for 14 different parasite organelles or structures. More recently, I have developed U-ExM for mosquito tissues, enabling us to visualise developing malaria parasites (or other arthropod-infecting pathogens) in situ in their mosquito hosts. This presentation will discuss expansion microscopy broadly, how it was used to develop at atlas of intraerythrocytic development of malaria parasites, and how we are currently using it to characterise a protein essential for the development of secretory organelles and salivary gland invasion of mosquito-stage malaria parasites.

Ben is a Senior Research Associate at The University of Adelaide’s School of Biological Sciences where he works with Associate Professor Danny Wilson. Ben has recently returned to Australia after having spent around 3 years as a postdoc with Sabrina Absalon at Indiana University School of Medicine where he studied mitosis and nuclear division in malaria parasites. Prior to that, Ben did Honours and a PhD at the University of Adelaide, where he studied the role of proteins involved in the malaria parasite secretory organelle the rhoptries, during host cell invasion. Ben’s work revolves around the cell biology of parasites, with a focus on understanding how parasites undergo the dramatic rearrangements required to form their daughter cells, which are specialised for host cell invasion. Ben’s work has largely been underpinned by the application and development of cutting-edge microscopy and image analysis techniques including expansion microscopy, a technique which he has trained dozens of scientists in and given seminars on around the world.

All Welcome!