Advances in Immunology and Microbiology Seminar Series
About the event
Featuring research in the areas of:
Epidemiology | Infectious Disease | Disease Ecology | Drug Discovery | Virology |
Global Health | Vector-Borne Disease | Pathology
The Advances in Immunology & Microbiology seminar series is a weekly forum that brings together scientists from diverse fields and disciplines across the College of Veterinary Medicine to discuss research advances in the broad areas of immunology, microbiology, infectious diseases, and global health. Seminars feature student speakers from the Immunology & Infectious Disease (IID) doctoral program, IID-affiliated postdoctoral researchers and faculty, intramural speakers from across the university, and extramural speakers.
INTRAMURAL TRAINEE DOUBLE-HEADER
Brittany Genera, PhD candidate (Advisors: Drs. Kelly Brayton and Jason Park)
TITLE: AteA: A Phosphorylated, EPLYA-Motif Effector Targeting Host Actin
ABSTRACT: AteA is a tick-specific Anaplasma phagocytophilum effector that provides insight into how the pathogen adapts to distinct host environments. Transcriptomic comparisons show that Anaplasma differentially expresses a substantial portion of its genome in ticks, highlighting the importance of host-specific effectors such as AteA. Functional studies demonstrate that AteA localizes to cortical actin, influencing host cytoskeletal organization during infection. AteA contains conserved EPLYA motifs that resemble canonical tyrosine-phosphorylation sites found in other bacterial effectors. Biochemical assays confirm that these EPLYA motifs are phosphorylated by host Src- and Abl-family kinases, suggesting that AteA exploits conserved signaling pathways to modulate tick cell function. Together, these findings identify AteA as a phosphorylated, actin-associated effector required for efficient infection in the tick vector and provide new insight into how A. phagocytophilum reprograms host cell processes.
Hayley Masterson, PhD candidate and microbiology resident (Advisor: Dr. Massaro Ueti)
TITLE: Immunization of calves with a full-length recombinant AMA1 protein provides protection against severe bovine babesiosis
ABSTRACT: Bovine babesiosis is an economically important disease of cattle that is found in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. This disease is caused by an intraerythrocytic parasite, Babesia bovis. It is transmitted through the Rhipicephalus microplus tick vector to naïve animals, causing significant clinical disease that can lead to death. The B. bovis lifecycle is very complex. The first stage of the parasite that the mammalian host encounters is the sporozoite stage. Compared to B. bovis blood stages, the sporozoite stage is relatively understudied. Little is known about what proteins the sporozoite utilizes to invade bovine erythrocytes and establish infection in the naïve host. It is hypothesized that sporozoites utilize the same invasion proteins as merozoites to invade bovine erythrocytes. Targeting invasion proteins with antibodies that can block parasite entry into erythrocytes would prevent the establishment of infection and ultimately reduce clinical babesiosis. Utilizing a full-length recombinant invasion protein, our project aims to determine if immunization with this protein provides protection against severe clinical bovine babesiosis in calves challenged with B. bovis parasite.