image: Colored electron micrograph of the bloodstream form of the Trypanosoma brucei parasite (violet) that causes African trypanosomiasis (also called sleeping sickness) in humans in the presence of an erythrocyte (red) and a lymphocyte (blue). After infection of the mammalian host by bite of the tsetse fly, the parasite lives within the bloodstream before it invades the central nervous system and the brain to cause fatal effects. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Nov. 29, 2012, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The paper, by Lars Redecke at the University of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues was titled, "Natively Inhibited Trypanosoma brucei Cathepsin B Structure Determined Using an X-ray Laser." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Michael Duszenko, University of Tübingen