Sabrina Absalon, Phd
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sabsalon.bsky.social
Sabrina Absalon, Phd
@sabsalon.bsky.social
Cell biologist | microscopist studying the nuclear and cell division of Malaria parasites | https://www.absalonlab.com/ |Co-founder of Peers in Parasitology | Be who you are 🏳️‍🌈 |Healthcare is a human right
Please visit @benliffner.bsky.social poster at #GEF25 to know more
September 28, 2025 at 3:55 PM
The Zeiss Objective C-Apo 40x/1.2 W Corr works beautifully for us and we even discussed it in our method paper for expansion microscopy on mosquito whole organs: MoTissU-ExM | BMC Methods | Full Text share.google/atZ9aoKRvw0U...
Mosquito Tissue Ultrastructure-Expansion Microscopy (MoTissU-ExM) enables ultrastructural and anatomical analysis of malaria parasites and their mosquito - BMC Methods
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.
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September 28, 2025 at 3:54 PM
I would love that and I can show the cool stuff we have on actin ;-)
August 28, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Omaya your preprint made my day. Totally interesting any chance I will see you at ExM Gottingen?
August 28, 2025 at 1:53 PM
At the top of my to do read
August 17, 2025 at 8:54 PM