PBMCs were freshly isolated from blood samples collected 7 days after PfSPZ immunization and stained for viability with Aqua Live/Dead dye(Invitrogen) followed by surface-staining for the following markers: CD20-Cy7APC (BD Bioscience), CD19-FITC (BD Bioscience), CD3-Cy7PE (BD Bioscience), CD38-PE (BD Bioscience), and CD27-APC (ThermoFisher). Plasmablasts were gated as live, CD3-CD20-CD19+CD27+CD38+ and were sorted as single cells into 96-well PCR plates containing 20 μl/well of RT reaction buffer that included 5 μl of 5× First strand cDNA buffer, 0.5 μl of RNAseOut (Invitrogen), 1.25 μl of DTT, 0.0625 μl of Igepal and 13.25 μl of dH2O (Invitrogen) as previously described46 (link).