The hemozoin challenge in malaria samples. Confocal and conventional STED images image of an infected red blood cell stained for EXP2 marking parasitophorous vacuole (cyan) and hemozoin in the food vacuole visualised via reflected light of the STED laser (yellow). Conventional STED increases the resolution but damages hemozoin and any surrounding cellular structures as evidenced in confocal images recorded after a single frame of STED imaging. Scale bar 2 μm.

Schloetel JG, Heine J, Cowman AF, Pasternak M. Guided STED nanoscopy enables super-resolution imaging of blood stage malaria parasites. Sci Rep. 2019 9(1):4674.