Plasmodium invades the body’s young red blood cells, which then begin to spread throughout the body. In a new study, researchers from Australia and the United States used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to reveal for the first time at the atomic level a three-dimensional picture of how Plasmodium vivax invades human red blood cells. They mapped out the first contact between the Plasmodium and the young red blood cells they are…