To invade red blood cells, malaria parasites create a temporary molecular portal that lets them slip into the cell — and then the door disappears behind it, gone in 60 seconds. Researchers have finally detailed the proteins that let it break in without tripping the alarms.
On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Joanna Thompson about these new images of Plasmodium’s moment of invasion — and what this breakthrough could mean for the next generation of malaria treatments and drug discovery for other parasitic diseases.
This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.
Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor-in-chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.