Ben Liffner

Ben Liffner

@benliffner.bsky.social

Microbiology nerd 🤓. Future Making Fellow @ The University of Adelaide🦠. Studying parasite cell biology using microscopy🔬🦟🧫.

618 followers301 following41 posts

Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

A dynamic barrier: remodeling of the nuclear envelope during closed mitosis in malaria parasites | mSphere journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

journals.asm.orgA dynamic barrier: remodeling of the nuclear envelope during closed mitosis in malaria parasites | mSphereWhen I first encountered the paper by Weiner et al. in 2011 (1), I was struck not just by the data, but by the questions it raised. Their use of focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) to generate high-resolution 3D reconstructions of nuclear pore organization across the intraerythrocytic cycle of Plasmodium falciparum offered a tantalizing glimpse into the nuclear envelope (NE) of a parasite that replicates unlike any model eukaryote (2). The idea that this structure—a defining feature of eukaryotic cells—could remain intact throughout mitosis, while still accommodating spindle formation, organelle inheritance, and gene regulation, challenged my assumptions about cell division.
Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

Thanks very much to the wonderful folks in the new Flinders Health & Medical Research Building for hosting me on Tuesday! Cheers to Nick Eyre and @evahesping.bsky.social for the invitation to speak and for showing me around the beautiful new facility!

Claire Jessup@betacellgirl.bsky.social

Fabulous CMPH Biosciences talk this week by @benliffner.bsky.social about Expansion #Microscopy to visualise parasites - so pretty!!! Great demonstration of how an improved method can give new answers 👏 Thanks for visiting #HMRB @flindersuniversity.bsky.social

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The Francis Crick Institute
@crick.ac.uk

Crick researchers have uncovered how the intestinal Cryptosporidium parasite uses a protein to alter its host’s gut environment, enabling the parasite to survive and replicate. www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-04...

crick.ac.ukResearchers uncover how intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium alters host cellsResearchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shown that the Cryptosporidium parasite exports a protein into infected intestinal cells, altering the gut environment and enabling the parasite to surv...

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Wallace Marshall
@wallaceucsf.bsky.social

Cell biology is producing mountains of microscopy data, usually a given paper got that data for some purpose, but what if you could find relevant data that you could use to answer your own questions? in her new preprint, @marymirvis.bsky.social develops Systematic Review methods to do just that

Mary Mirvis@marymirvis.bsky.social

New(ish) preprint! 📰What whole-cell patterns emerge from the arrangement, morphologies, and interactions of organelles in the 3D space of the cell? What would we see if we could gather ALL the whole-cell reconstruction data that's out there in one place? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 1/11

biorxiv.orgA scoping study of the whole-cell imaging literature: a foundational corpus, potential for mesoscale data synthesis, and implications for standardization of an emerging fieldThe level of cellular organization bridging the mesoscale and whole-cell scale is coming into focus as a new frontier in cell biology. Great progress has been made in unraveling the complex physical a...

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Sabrina Absalon, Phd
@sabsalon.bsky.social

🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨 We’ve uncovered a key player in malaria parasite cell division—meet PfAnchor, the first apicoplast-specific dynamin adaptor protein! Check the thread below 🧵for more details. #U_ExM #Malaria #Apicoplast www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgAn Essential Adaptor for Apicoplast Fission and Inheritance in Malaria ParasitesBlood-stage Plasmodium falciparum parasites rely on a non-photosynthetic plastid, the apicoplast, for survival, making it an attractive target for antimalarial intervention. Like the mitochondrion, th...
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Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

For the small number of RON11 knockdown parasites that make it to the salivary gland, we found they accumulate in the space between epithelial cells but almost never actually invade or get into the secretory cavity. This interesting observation explains why these parasites are not transmissible!

Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

There are plenty of other interesting tidbits and findings in this study, and after peer review we will make all the imaging data available on an online database so anybody can look through the images themselves!

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Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

More important though, these RON11 knockdown sporozoites only made half the number of rhoptries. And when we looked at the small number of sporozoites that made it to the salivary gland, many of them had no rhoptries at all!

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Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

We knew RON11 was also expressed in sporozoites and that its knockdown inhibited salivary gland invasion from a previous study, and we were lucky enough to get access to this parasite line produced by Tomoko Ishino's group www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.comRhoptry neck protein 11 has crucial roles during malaria parasite sporozoite invasion of salivary glands and hepatocytesThe malaria parasite sporozoite sequentially invades mosquito salivary glands and mammalian hepatocytes; and is the Plasmodium lifecycle infective for…
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Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

One unexpected observation was that of the usually 2 pairs of rhoptries in oocyst sporozoites, they were morphologically distinguishable. We called these the dimorphic (different size) and congruent (same size) rhoptry pairs, with the congruent rhoptries specifically used up during SG invasion.

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Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

Wanting to follow the fate of rhoptries through the invasion of sporozoites into the mosquito salivary gland, we could differentiate sporozoites at different stages of this process. Excitingly, we could see that sporozoites use up two rhoptries during salivary gland epithelial cell invasion!

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Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

Next, we wanted to look at how sporozoites form within the oocyst. But we ran into a problem, oocysts from the same midgut varied massively in their progress through sporozoite development. So how can we compare different oocysts with each other?

Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

In the past, oocyst size was used a proxy for development, but one sporozoite formation started, we saw no real correlation with developmental stage and oocyst size. Instead we developed what we call the segmentation score, using progress through cytokinesis as a way to assess sporozoite development

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Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

Having seen how powerful expansion microscopy was for studying other aspects of parasite biology, we were really keen to see what this technique could allow us to see in mosquito-stage parasites. Being good cell biologists, we first looked at the cool microtubule spindle structures of oocysts!

Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

In 2022, the idea to have a look at sporozoites using expansion microscopy came up after Alexis gave a seminar at IUSM! Early attempts were hit and miss for different reasons, but we really got the technique running smoothly after a month working it up with Thiago @jvr-lab.bsky.social

Ben Liffner reposted

Sabrina Absalon, Phd
@sabsalon.bsky.social

Ten years of bigger samples, better views mcgovern.mit.edu/2025/03/03/t... Thank you for including our lab's contribution in your remarkable piece about what I believe is the most revolutionary method for studying tiny, fascinating apicomplexans. @benliffner.bsky.social @jvr-lab.bsky.social

mcgovern.mit.eduTen years of bigger samples, better views - MIT McGovern InstituteNearly 150 years ago, scientists began to imagine how information might flow through the brain based on the shapes of neurons they had seen under the microscopes of the time. With today’s imaging tech...
Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

A massive thanks to @bladerlab.bsky.social for the opportunity to put this mSphere of influence article together! Also @dvorinlab.bsky.social, @ebertiaux.bsky.social, Brochet Lab, & @centriolelab.bsky.social for doing science that shows off why parasites are cool! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

journals.asm.orgmSphere of Influence: The ever-expanding universe of parasite cell biology | mSphereSingle-celled apicomplexan parasites have to grow, replicate, and divide all of the organelles of a eukaryotic cell all while being a tiny fraction of the size of most other eukaryotes. For example, a...

Ben Liffner reposted

Sateriale Lab
@saterialelab.bsky.social

Cryptosporidium modifies intestinal microvilli through an exported virulence factor!! Phenomenal work from the newly DR’ed Elena Rodrigues www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgCryptosporidium modifies intestinal microvilli through an exported virulence factorCryptosporidium is a common intestinal infection of vertebrates and a significant threat to public health. Within the epithelial layer of the intestine, the parasite invades and replicates. Infected cells are readily detected under the microscope by the presence of elongated microvilli, particularly around the vacuole where the parasite resides. Here, we identify a family of Cryptosporidium virulence factors that are exported into the host cell during infection and localise to the microvilli. We examine the trafficking and function of the most highly expressed family member, MVP1, which appears to control the elongation of microvilli through engagement of host EBP50 and CDC42. Remarkably, this mechanism closely mirrors that of an enteropathogenic Escherichia coli virulence factor, MAP, which is also known to drive host microvilli elongation during infection. This highlights a unique instance where eukaryotic and prokaryotic virulence factors have convergently evolved to modulate host actin structures through a similar mechanism. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
Ben Liffner
@benliffner.bsky.social

Would have loved to be able to be there in person, but excited and proud to see a great colleague and a great friend in James Blauwkamp deliver a fantastic PhD Defence! Been a wonderful experience to see you grow as a scientist over the years and excited to see what's next 🎉 @sabsalon.bsky.social

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Sreelakshmi Sreenivasamurthy
@sreelakshmi.bsky.social

Happy to share that our work on PfFBXO1 is finally online.. www.nature.com/articles/s42... Thanks for the support and congratulations to the team: Jeffrey Dvorin, @bladerlab.bsky.social, Gustavo Baptista and Chris West

nature.comPfFBXO1 is essential for inner membrane complex formation in Plasmodium falciparum during both asexual and transmission stages - Communications BiologyFunctional characterization of PfFBXO1, utilizing cell biology, genetics, and biochemistry, demonstrates essential roles for this protein in formation of the inner membrane complex in asexual merozoit...

Ben Liffner reposted

Joel Vega-Rodriguez
@jvr-lab.bsky.social

Our paper on U-ExM for mosquito tissues (MoTissU-ExM) in BMC methods! Great collaboration with @sabsalon.bsky.social and @benliffner.bsky.social bmcmethods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

bmcmethods.biomedcentral.comMosquito Tissue Ultrastructure-Expansion Microscopy (MoTissU-ExM) enables ultrastructural and anatomical analysis of malaria parasites and their mosquito - BMC MethodsBackground 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. ...