Laboratoř genomiky a proteomiky vektorů
In our group, we exploit the Ixodes ricinus tick as a model organism to:
- Apply a systems-based and multimodal approach to discover tick effectors determining blood feeding success.
- Understand which vertebrate host proteolytic cascades tick salivary secretions regulate at sites of tick infestation and how they facilitate blood meal uptake and successful completion of the tick lifecycle.
- Test the pharmacological action(s) of recombinant tick salivary proteins and non-coding RNAs (long non coding and microRNAs) and their mechanism of action in the vertebrate host at the molecular, cellular, and organismal level to expedite drug development.
Our research projects aim to:
- Explore basic mechanisms of tick blood feeding success as the conceptual basis for the future development of novel methods/tools (e.g., anti-tick vaccines and diagnostic kits to monitor exposure of vertebrate hosts to arthropod disease vectors) to control tick populations.
- Demonstrate the pharmacological action of tick salivary proteins and non-coding RNAs in the regulation of vertebrate host homeostasis (haemostasis, vascular biology, immunity, neuromodulation) and/or as anti-microbial peptides and test their potential for drug development in the near future.
Research topics:
- Gene overexpression/protein purification
- Biochemistry: enzyme inhibition kinetics-protease inhibitors
- Structural Biology
- Proteomics/Transcriptomics/Non-coding RNAs
- Immune assays: cell-culture assays /animal models
- Tick colony maintenance/tick saliva production
