TICK IMMUNITY

The three research projects under Tick Immunity are supported by a Tick Resources Core providing reagents and instructions. These projects capitalize on the recent findings and emerging concepts that tick immune responses can involve unique pathways, and that interaction between microbiota and invading pathogens shape gut physiology and immunity, ultimately impacting the ability of ticks to acquire and maintain pathogens. The Tick Resources Core will not only provide existing tick-vector tools such as cell lines and the ticks themselves to support the three research projects, but will also develop new cell lines specific to immune and genetic pathway analysis for this work. The Core is also charged with sharing any resulting tools and materials from this research with the scientific community via BEI Resources to farther advance the field, and submitting genomic data to the VectorBase. The Tick Resources Core Director is Dr. Ulrike Munderloh at the University of Minnesota.