Visible microspectrophotometry coupled with machine learning to discriminate the erythrocytic life cycle stages of malaria parasites in functional single cells.

Malaria was regarded as the most devastating infectious disease of the 21st century until the COVID-19 pandemic. Asexual blood staged parasites (ABS) play a unique role in ensuring the parasite's survival and pathogenesis. Hitherto, there have been no spectroscopic reports discriminating the life cycle stages of the ABS parasite under physiological conditions.