Paul Sigala

Malaria Parasites are Full of Wildly Spinning Iron Crystals. Scientists Finally Know Why. The first known metallic nanomotor in biology is powered by rocket fuel.

@uofuhealth.bsky.social put out a gracious highlight on our manuscript @pnas.org #malaria @uofubiochem.bsky.social @uofutahcihd.bsky.social
healthcare.utah.edu/newsroom/new...

Chemical propulsion of hemozoin crystal motion in malaria parasites | PNAS Malaria parasites infect red blood cells where they digest host hemoglobin and release free heme inside a lysosome-like organelle called the food v...

Thrilled our study on heme crystal motion in #malaria @parasitesrule.org is now published @pnas.org, support from NIH, @bwfund.bsky.social, @uofutahcihd.bsky.social, UofU 3i. With Fu and Bidone labs @price.utah.edu, @uofubiochem.bsky.social, @uofuhealth.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

It was a pleasure to host these speakers for our 2025 #Postdoc Rising Stars event! Great science and terrific symposium. @uofubiochem.bsky.social @uuhsresearch.bsky.social

Very excited to welcome these #postdoc speakers to our annual @utah.edu Rising Stars Symposium cohosted by @uofubiochem.bsky.social and Med Chem @uuhsresearch.bsky.social with keynote address by Ryan Watts at Denali

We're thrilled to announce the 2025 Postdoctoral Rising Stars Symposium cohosted @uofuhealth.bsky.social by @uofubiochem.bsky.social and MedChem with keynote by Ryan Watts at Denali Therapeutics

Congratulations to lab members Aldo García-Guerrero and Erica Hastings for winning the @uofubiochem.bsky.social Evelyn Bruenger and Marjorie Riches Gunn Awards for Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Research Excellence, respectively! #malaria @uofutahcihd.bsky.social @uuhsresearch.bsky.social

Happening today! @uofubiochem.bsky.social @uofutahcihd.bsky.social @parasitesrule.org #malaria #biophysics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Congrats to our chair, Wes Sundquist, on being awarded the Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award for work on lenacapavir!

Thanks, Sabrina. I've been fascinated by this motion since I started my postdoc with Dan Goldberg and saw live parasites under the microscope. It was a challenging problem, but Erica and our collaborators brought together an incisive dissection of this motion, with an unexpected mechanism.

I'll ask Erica to send you the zoom link.

It's an honor to announce the upcoming PhD thesis defense of Erica Hastings, who will present her work on #malaria parasites and the biophysics of hemozoin motion @uofubiochem.bsky.social ky.social @uofutahcihd.bsky.social
@parasitesrule.org

Thrilled to announce a new collaborative preprint from PhD student Erica Hastings unraveling the nature and mechanism of fascinating hemozoin crystal motion inside #malaria parasites @uofubiochem.bsky.social @uofutahcihd.bsky.social @bwfund.bsky.social
@parasitesrule.org
t.co/zLPgIS1rig

ACS Infectious Diseases Predicted structure of the key complex from malaria parasites that attaches heme to mitochondrial cytochrome c to support the critical function of the electron transport chain. This structure was predicted using the AlphaFold 3 server and rendered using PyMOL. View the article.

Thanks to @pubs.acs.org for featuring our work on cyt c biogenesis in #malaria parasites on the front cover!
@uofubiochem.bsky.social @uofutahcihd.bsky.social pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Very proud of PhD student Erica Hastings who gave a talk and poster at the American Physical Society meeting on collaborative work to understand hemozoin crystal motion in #malaria parasites @uofubiochem.bsky.social @uofutahcihd.bsky.social @bwfund.bsky.social Paper coming soon!