Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Divide and Conquer
05 June 2012

Divide and Conquer

‘Sleeping sickness' really doesn’t effectively describe the severity of the disease caused by Trypanosoma brucei. The parasite is injected into the bloodstream by a biting insect. Anaemia soon results before T. Brucei spreads to the central nervous system, disrupting brain function and sleeping patterns. While it is a single-celled organism, the parasite shares many aspects of cell division with multicellular organisms like us. Here it is shown at different stages of a ‘hybrid’ cell division. DNA (orange spots) is found in two locations within the trypanosome. As with our cells, most of the DNA is wrapped up in the cell’s nucleus (large orange spots), but a few genes (small orange spots) are also found in energy generating structures – mitochondria. The parallels between host and parasite biology may be relevant to the design of therapies for the potentially fatal sleeping sickness.

Written by John Ankers

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.