This paper is a part of Special issue dedicated to Watt W. Webb - Point spread functions.
And our third paper on the quantitative understanding of RBC cytoskeleton remodeling by the malaria parasite, coming from a collaboration between @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social and Michael Lanzer at Heidelberg.

Our analysis reveals that the average separation between KAHRP and ankyrin junctions increases from 40 nm to 120 nm during the 48-hour malaria infection cycle—shedding light on how the parasite reorganizes the RBC cytoskeleton! #MalariaResearch

We apply our method to malaria-infected red blood cells (RBCs) imaged via STED microscopy. The RBC cytoskeleton, a quasi-hexagonal network of spectrin-actin junctions, is remodeled by the parasite using the knob-associated histidine-rich protein (KAHRP).

We examine how image size, signal density, separation distance, and signal size affect PCC profiles. This leads to new insights into molecular organization that were previously hidden in PCC profiles computed from images.

We derive a theoretical expression for the pair cross-correlation (PCC) function using 2D Gaussian distributions as effective point-spread functions for single molecules. Our analytical approach, combined with synthetic image data, reveals key factors influencing PCC profiles.

Title : Collective responses of flocking sheep (Ovis aries) to a herding dog (border collie)

Authors: Vivek Jadhav, Roberto Pasqua, Christophe Zanon, Matthieu Roy, Gilles Tredan, Richard Bon, Vishwesha Guttal & Guy Theraulaz

Journal: Communications Biology