Freddy Frischknecht
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freddyfrischknecht.bsky.social
Freddy Frischknecht
@freddyfrischknecht.bsky.social
Cell biologist working on malaria parasites and interested in host pathogen interactions, imaging, teaching, space exploration, gardening.
Reposted by Freddy Frischknecht
📢 Paper alert 📢

Chirality is known to be important for the movement of microorganisms and active matter. In our new paper out today in @natphys.nature.com, we show that chirality is used by malaria parasites to control their motion patterns:

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Here comes a 🧵 ... (1/9)
November 24, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Freddy Frischknecht
Mole's Comedia III. Purgatorio. Canto I–XXIV.

journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
November 21, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Beautiful beasts (2): Thanks Ian for allowing us to help a little to help you figuring out how B-cells help T-cells. What a spectacular cover coloured by #micronaut Martin Oeggerli.
November 11, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Now recruiting several PhD students and postdocs for different projects of our excellence cluster SynthImmune: application.synthimmune.de
For more info see perspective article below and synthimmune.de
November 11, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Freddy Frischknecht
“Cellular Olympics” our catalog of freeky ultra fast cellular superhero’s is freely available “Ann Rev of microbiology”

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

This is a compilation of world’s fastest single cell organisms - enjoy this buffet of rare delightful protists with mind bending speeds. 🧪
October 24, 2025 at 10:57 AM
What a way to start the week. Quick morning run at Les Embiez for the #EMBO /#ParaFRAP workshop Host-Parasite Interactions, where parasites truly rule.
October 6, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Beware of artifacts during low pressure fixation of mushroom samples.
October 4, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Beautiful beasts: excited to see our first volume electron microscopy study on malaria parasites published: advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... revealing new insights into Plasmodium ookinete development. Thanks for great EMBL-Umea-Heidelberg collaboration.
October 2, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Early expansion microscopy: youtube.com/watch?v=56Fi...
Muppet Labs - Discover the Germ Enlarger! | The Muppet Show
YouTube video by Muppet Show Mania
youtube.com
September 3, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by Freddy Frischknecht
Curious about how antibodies can target Plasmodium sporozoites?

Very happy to see this review out, it means a lot to me to finish my PhD research topic with a nice overview of what is known about how anti-CSP Abs neutralize the parasite in the mammalian host.
September 2, 2025 at 10:06 PM
My favorite among my daughter’s new songs: peaceful warrior youtube.com/watch?v=hzmU...
peaceful warrior
YouTube video by Ayla - Topic
youtube.com
August 3, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Superb conference on Iron metabolism in early gametogenesis with fellow para-philosophers Bruce Boddey and Bruce Meissner. Great keynote by Bruce D. on 666 ways of regulation by Beast kinases.
July 27, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Finally published: discovery of an unusual Arp2/3 complex with surprising new function in transmission of #malaria #parasites. Great work by Franzi Hentzschel, Yvonne Sokolowski + David Jewanski + fantastic collaboration with Matthias Marti: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
June 14, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Freddy Frischknecht
Awesome malaria study out now in Nature Microbiology:

An atypical Arp2/3 complex is required for Plasmodium DNA segregation and malaria transmission

By Franziska Hentzschel, Matthias Marti, Freddy Frischknecht & colleagues!

@freddyfrischknecht.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
An atypical Arp2/3 complex is required for Plasmodium DNA segregation and malaria transmission - Nature Microbiology
A unique Arp2/3 complex in malaria parasites enables DNA segregation during the rapid formation of male gametes by safeguarding the attachment of chromosomes to the mitotic spindle.
www.nature.com
June 13, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Nice cover @molmicrounihoh.bsky.social features Blastocrithidia nonstop, a trypanosomatid parasite with a non‐canonical genetic code. Associated paper by Slava Yurchenko, Julius Lukes and colleagues describes its genetic transformation: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
June 11, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Thanks so much to everyone for making BioMalPar XXI such a memorable and enjoyable conference. Looking forward to BioMalPar XXII on May 27-29, 2026.
May 23, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Freddy Frischknecht
Learn about the #cytoskeleton: From #evolution to #biophysics and more at EMBO Workshop "Frontiers in Cytoskeleton Research" in Pune, India, 3–7 Nov

Abstract submission deadline: 20 Jun
Registration deadline: 15 Jul

buff.ly/b7zAyw8
#EMBOcytoskeleton #StructuralBiology #CellBiology #EMBOevents 🧪
Frontiers in Cytoskeleton Research
A key question in biology is how living cells adapt to highly complex functional requirements in the context of an organism, within which they need to develop complex morphologies, interact with many…
buff.ly
May 20, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Reposted by Freddy Frischknecht
The SynthImmune project by Heidelberg University& partner institutes advances a "bottom-up" synthetic biology approach to immunotherapies.
Hoping they do well in the German government's Excellence Strategy—anticipating the announcement on 22 May.

Perspective article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bottom-up synthetic immunology - Nature Nanotechnology
This Perspective highlights bottom-up molecular engineering and modular nanobiotechnological approaches for developing effective immunotherapeutics and their potential in personalized medicine.
www.nature.com
May 14, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Come join us for an exciting @embo.org meeting in an enchanting location near Marseille
April 25, 2025 at 3:34 PM
#malaria #parasites aren't exactly tolerated by our #liver cells. Preview with Justin Boddey on a great paper by Camila Marques da Silva and Samarchith P. Kurup in the same issue: Interferoning with #Plasmodium development in the liver: www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
Interferoning with Plasmodium development in the liver
Plasmodium liver infection is limited by type I interferons (IFN-I) but the mechanisms remain unknown. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Marques-da-Silva et al. reveal two IFN-I-induced pathways t...
www.cell.com
April 10, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Looking forward to teaching a @kakape.bsky.social inspired bridging seminar with Nora Heinzelmann on different aspects of modern biotechnology @marsilius.bsky.social. Looking forward to an interesting rollercoaster of opinions.
April 6, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Live from Tübingen: the one and only Artur Scherf illuminating #Plasmodium var gene expression using his flower model of the infected red cell.
April 3, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Congrats Dr Annika Binder for a fantastic thesis and defense on microtubule binding proteins of #malaria #parasites exactly 25 years after I got my Dr for something with #actin and poxviruses and almost failed a question on, well, microtubule binding proteins.
March 31, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Finally: Plasmodium actin filaments visualized in all their glory. Congrats Josie and Vojtech: www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Molecular architecture of glideosome and nuclear F-actin in Plasmodium falciparum | EMBO reports
imageimageThis study directly visualises actin cytoskeleton in Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites under native conditions and investigates its structural transitions during locomotion. P. falciparum a...
www.embopress.org
March 25, 2025 at 8:18 PM
And here with two previous winners both proudly wearing the traditional leopard skin that comes along with the prize. Go boldly.
March 14, 2025 at 5:47 PM