Chronic-stage Toxoplasma infection of a human skin cell

A human skin cell with an uninvited Toxoplasma guest.

The red web is the cell's own protein architecture, crisp and translucent because this is a single layer of cells — nothing above or below to muddy the view.

The denser red netting is mitochondria, the cell's power plants, which pile up around invaders for reasons nobody fully agrees on: part defence, part manipulation, and it's unclear who's playing whom.

The parasites themselves you won't see — they're sealed inside the green wall, the armour Toxoplasma builds around itself for the long haul. Master hiders: one in three of us is carrying them right now and never noticed.

🟩 Cyst wall 🟥 All the cell's proteins