Freddy Frischknecht
@freddyfrischknecht.bsky.social
Cell biologist working on malaria parasites and interested in host pathogen interactions, imaging, teaching, space exploration, gardening.
Deadline extended! Applications open until 1 July 2026!
Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM)@sshmedicine.bsky.social · 3mo agoA multidisciplinary summer school that brings together perspectives from the life and natural sciences and the humanities to re-examine the multifaceted nature of fever. Deadline: 14 June 2026 #histmed #medhumanities For more details 👇 www.marsilius-kolleg.uni-heidelberg.de/de/studium/i...
Feel the heat? Join us in Heidelberg for an interdisciplinary summer school on FEVER. Stefanie Gänger, Ulrich Schwarz and Freddy Frischknecht welcome 30 participants and speakers incl. science journalist Kai Kupferschmidt to our Institute of Advanced Studies. Info & registration: lnkd.in/d7Yt5tf9
And teaching does make a difference: Just received the news from Pedro, that @mblbop.bsky.social 2024 fellow Linda obtained a postdoctoral fellowship to continue her career @gwu1821.bsky.social. That follows from a student who admitted this noon to join my lab because he listen to one of my talks.
✨ One year on, we honor Spencer Shorte. On Jan 28, 2026, Institut Pasteur paid tribute to a visionary scientist and human leader. His legacy lives on through the PPU–Research & Technology track, uniting research & innovation as he envisioned. Inspiring future generations.
Screw it. It's weekend. My daughters new song: open.spotify.com/intl-de/trac... placed just below mighty Bruce Springsteens Streets of Minneapolis on the German Friday music stream list.
(1/2) Our work with @freddyfrischknecht.bsky.social on the chirality of malaria parasites has found its home in the January issue of @natphys.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Moreover, we are very happy that it comes with a news and views article 👍❤️😀
Chirality of malaria parasites determines their motion patterns - Nature Physics
Malaria parasites move on helical trajectories when infecting their hosts. Now it is shown that they use right-handed chirality to control their motion patterns, and that this chirality is linked to t...
nature.com
Happy New Year from Heidelberg and looking forward to SingMalNet in Singapore in February, BioMalPar in sunny Heidelberg in May and other adventures.
This might well become your best summer experience
ParasitesRule@parasitesrule.org · 8mo ago🦠 Grad students & postdocs in parasitology: Apply now for the Biology of Parasitism (BoP): Modern Approaches course at @MBLScience. Hands-on labs, expert lectures, and cutting-edge tools. 📅 Summer 2026 | ⏰ Deadline Feb 5 🔗 mbl.edu/courses
Join us (again) for another fantastic BioMalPar meeting @embl.org and also a great pre-meeting @ciid-heidelberg.bsky.social
EMBL Events@events.embl.org · 9mo agoDo you want to join a community working to reduce the devastating toll of #malaria by pushing forward new ideas, innovations, and strategies? 🦟 🧬 Registration is now open for #EMBLMalaria: https://s.embl.org/bmp26-01-bl ✍️ Submit your abstract by 18 Feb 🗓️ 27 – 29 May 2026 #BioMalPar
📢 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)
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.
Science Magazine@science.org · 10mo agoA new #ScienceImmunology study in mice provides insight into why malaria vaccines that contain the whole Plasmodium parasite may have limited efficacy in humans who live in endemic regions. https://scim.ag/4nONXn9
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
SynthImmune - Online Application System
application.synthimmune.de
Wolfgang Huber@wkhuber.bsky.social · last yr.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...
“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. 🧪
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.
Beware of artifacts during low pressure fixation of mushroom samples.
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.
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.
Trends in Parasitology@cp-trendsparasitol.bsky.social · 12mo agoNew Review alert! Tissue-dependent protection mechanisms of #antibodies targeting #Plasmodium #sporozoites, authored by @maguirreb.bsky.social & Rogerio Amino. #malaria #circumsporozoiteprotein #CSP @pasteur.fr @upcite.bsky.social authors.elsevier.com/a/1lhKa5Eb1x...
My favorite among my daughter’s new songs: peaceful warrior youtube.com/watch?v=hzmU...
peaceful warrior
YouTube video by Ayla - Topic
youtube.com
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.
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...
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.
nature.com
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/...
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.
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
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.
nature.com
#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...
cell.com
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.
