SPring-8, the large synchrotron radiation facility

Date: 13:30-15:00November 6(FRI.), 2009

Place: 109-110 Structural Biology Facility

Speaker: Prof. Jens Als-Nielsen

Language: English

Affiliate: University of Copenhagen

Title: Non-invasive study of hemozoin nano-crystals in malaria infected red blood cells using synchrotron radiation

Abstract:
Within the complex life cycle of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, there is a stage where the parasite lives in the red blood cell and degrades host hemoglobin as a major source of amino acids. The inner part of the hemoglobin, the heme ferriprotoporphyrin is toxic to the parasite in the free state, but when converted into a crystalline compound, called malaria pigment or hemozoin, it is harmless.
The aim of our experiments is to investigate how these crystals are formed, because one may then device methods to slow down or inhibit the crystal formation and in this way let the parasite kill itself. The crystal structure of the synthetic form, called beta-hematin, is known, and hemozoin crystals have been studied for years by TEM revealing their submicron size. However, the methodology of TEM necessitates a substantial amount of handling of the red blood cell and the hemoszoin crystals, so essential features of the crystal growth may be lost. Our approach has been to utilize powerful nano-Xray beams now available to carry out a non-invasive study, and in the seminar we shall describe progress in this direction, albeit the study is presently by no means complete.

Organizer: Kenichi Kato
PHS:3476
E-mail: katok@spring8.or.jp