Advances in Immunology and Microbiology Seminar Series: Kevin Baird

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.

PRESENTER: Kevin Baird, PhD candidate; Mentor: Dr. Massaro Ueti

TITLE: Targeting the Babesia bovis kinete stage for transmission blocking

ABSTRACT: Bovine Babesiosis is a tick-borne disease causing severe economic losses in global cattle industries. The causative agent, Babesia bovis, has a complex lifecycle with multiple life stages allowing it to colonize both arthropod (tick) and mammalian (bovine) hosts. In the kinete stage, B. bovis invades tick ovaries in order to infect developing larvae. This is a vertical transmission process known as transovarial transmission and is critical for maintaining the parasite in tick populations. In this study, we investigate the possibility of targeting this vital kinete stage with bovine antibodies to disrupt vertical transmission.