2nd Biennial Cryptosporidium Meeting We welcome you to join us in Edinburgh for a chance to network with colleagues and share your cutting-edge Cryptosporidium research.

Registration and abstract submission is now open for the 2nd Biennial Cryptosporidium Meeting is now open. Deadline April 1st: eventbrite.co.uk/e/2nd-bienni...
Submit your abstract by Feb 15th. See you in Edinburgh, May 24th-26th, 2026!

Belated congratulations to our award winning ladies: Tapoka Mkandawire (Unsung Hero) and Bishara Marzook (Scientific Achievement)!

Excited to release the Herculean efforts of @scottchisholm.bsky.social &Co. defining the subcellular #hyperLOPIT spatial proteome of #Plasmodium schizonts. Proteomes defining 24 subcellular niches, including exported compartments in the blood cell, are identified.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Crick group leaders work across disciplines, supported by core funding and mentoring to build ambitious, curiosity-driven research.

Apply now to join us ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Interested in human parasites? Intestinal immunity? Epithelial cell biology? Designing genetic screens? If so, we are interested in you! Our institute is a really fantastic place to get your PhD - a supportive scientific community and wide ranging resources all under one roof 👇

CoccidiaUK 2025 registration DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: NOVEMBER 7th Event Timing: December 8th 9am-5pm December 9th 9am-12pm Event Address: The Francis Crick Institute Questions? please email ada...

Who-cysts? OOCYSTS! That's right, it's almost time for ❄️Coccidia UK 2025❄️

Your one-stop shop (/conference) for all like-minded sporulating apicomplexan parasites! This year we're in London @crick.ac.uk, looking forward to welcoming parasitologists from across the UK. Register-
tinyurl.com/4ny5bwu2

From nutrient acquisition to drug resistance, membrane transport is especially important for intracellular parasites! This review will help you stay up-to-date on the latest transport research for crypto/malaria/toxo: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Targeted CRISPR screens reveal genes essential for Cryptosporidium survival in the host intestine - Nature Communications Cryptosporidium is an important threat to public health, yet it lacks a robust genetic toolkit. Here, Watson et al. introduce a targeted CRISPR-based screening method to identify parasite genes that a...

Now available in a polished format! An important step toward accelerated functional genomics for the Cryptosporidium parasite. Brought to you by the incomparable @lucy-watson.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The talented @ghostpathogen.bsky.social recently discussed Cryptosporidium and aspirations for a new treatment on the Naked Scientists Podcast: www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/nak...

Convergent mechanisms of epithelial cell structure manipulation by intestinal pathogens The epithelial layer that lines the digestive system serves as the primary barrier to infection by intestinal pathogens. While this layer has evolved complex molecular mechanisms to identify and respo...

A fun little review of convergent mechanisms in pathogenesis 🦠 We really enjoyed putting this together and I think it comes through on the page @elena-l-r.bsky.social @ghostpathogen.bsky.social & Mitch Pallett dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

We are so excited to see the new avenues for research this will create! 👏👏👏 @ghostpathogen.bsky.social @lottabaumgaertel.bsky.social @netanyabernitz.bsky.social @tapokam.bsky.social @lucy-watson.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk

Very nice to see this work highlighted by Dr Ward, whose research continues to shape ours

June was a productive month: brought two things into this world, both of which were great collaborative efforts and about nine months in the making. Check out where we map P. falciparum genome architecture at high resolution with Micro-C here:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The fast-evolving FIKK kinase family of Plasmodium falciparum can be inhibited by a single compound - Nature Microbiology FIKK effector kinases underwent rapid evolutionary expansion and are a druggable target in Plasmodium falciparum.

Better late than never, but I am thrilled to share our newest research from the Treeck lab!!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Researchers uncover how intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium alters host cells Researchers 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...

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...

🔥 Open postdoc position in human inflammation-driven control of infection! 🔥
Join me at the University of Geneva, Switzerland this summer as I’m moving my Wellcome-funded research activity to the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine! (1/5)

Please share!

and welcome to bluesky @elena-l-r.bsky.social 👏👏👏

There is (A LOT) more in the manuscript! Please have a look for yourself!

a man in a suit and tie with the words pretty cool on the bottom right ALT: a man in a suit and tie with the words pretty cool on the bottom right

So, it appears this is a unique case of eukaryotic and prokaryotic virulence factors that have convergently evolved to drive the same host phenotype through a similar mechanism… pretty cool

Follow-up experiments confirmed that MVP1 controls microvilli elongation during Cryptosporidium infection!

…mirroring the host interactions of the pathogenic E. coli virulence factor MAP... WHICH IS ALSO KNOWN TO DRIVE MICROVILLI ELONGATION 🤯

When we dove into the function of the most highly expressed family member, MVP1, we discovered interactions with host actin modulators EBP50 and CDC42…

Here, we describe a new family of virulence factors that the parasite exports into the host cell following infection that… localise to the microvilli! We named this new family the MicroVilli Proteins or MVPs. 😉

During a Cryptosporidium infection it’s easy to find intestinal epithelial cells that harbor the parasite… Why? Infected cells have looooooong microvilli... 2-4x the length of uninfected cells (image from the amazing David Ferguson with parasites in color).

Cryptosporidium modifies intestinal microvilli through an exported virulence factor Cryptosporidium 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.

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

👏👏👏 @ghostpathogen.bsky.social

👏👏👏 @lucy-watson.bsky.social (and welcome to bluesky)

Please have a look! You'll find a lot of upgrades to existing methods for Cryptosporidium researchers and really cool biology for, well, everyone! 😀

..and parasites emerging without Cp23: