Ongoing Projects
Signal transduction and host adaptation.
To survive in nature and to cause disease, B. burgdorferi must adapt to diverse environments including tick vector and mammalian hosts. We are planning to understand (1) how B. burgdorferi promptly and precisely signals the complex tick-mammal environments, (2) how B. burgdorferi effectively “turns on" or "turns off” its regulatory network for quick adaptation to ticks and hosts, and (3) what downstream effectors are involved in host adaptation and disease development.
Metal uptake and nutritional immunity.
Due to its limited coding capacity, B. burgdorferi relies on the tick vector and animal hosts for nutrient supply. One major focus of our research is to delineate key nutritional aspects central to B. burgdorferi infection. In this regard, transition metals are essential for both bacterial physiology and pathogenesis. Different from other bacterial pathogens, B. burgdorferi does not accumulate and require iron to support its growth. Rather, this bacterium requires Mn, Zn, and Mg for its development, although it remains largely unknown how these metals are imported/exported by B. burgdorferi. Our study will uncover new factors critical for the spirochete to contend with innate immune responses and to survive in the host.
Protein structure and function.
Our laboratory collaborates extensively with structural biologists at USF to solve protein structure using NMR and X-ray crystallization, in order to elucidate the structural basis underlying the functions of B. burgdorferi proteins and to uncover fundamentally new paradigms in bacterial gene regulation.