Seminar

Arthropod-Pathogen-Host Interactions

Prof. Erol Fikrig

Professor Fikrig’s laboratory investigates vector-borne diseases. Studies are directed toward understanding Lyme disease, Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, and West Nile virus. Efforts on Lyme disease include exploring immunity to Borrelia burgdorferi, selective B. burgdorferi gene expression in vivo, and the immunobiology of Lyme arthritis. Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis is caused by a newly described pathogen, transmitted by Ixodes scapularis ticks, that persists within neutrophils. The laboratory is investigating the molecular strategies that this pathogen uses to survive in polymorphonuclear leukocytes. West Nile virus can cause fatal encephalitis, and Dr. Fikrig seeks to understand the pathogenesis of this emerging disease. Finally, the laboratory is also developing molecular approaches to prevent ticks from feeding on a mammalian host, thereby interfering with pathogen transmission. Dr. Fikrig is a Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and of Microbial Pathogenesis. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Section Chief of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. He has published over 300 publications, including: •Narasimhan S, Schuijt TJ, Abraham NM, Rajeevan N, Coumou J, Graham M, Robson A, Wu MJ, Daffre S, Hovius JW, Fikrig E: Modulation of the tick gut milieu by a secreted tick protein favors Borrelia burgdorferi colonization. Nat Commun. 2017 Aug 4; 2017 Aug 4. PMID: 28775250 •Abraham NM, Liu L, Jutras BL, Yadav AK, Narasimhan S, Gopalakrishnan V, Ansari JM, Jefferson KK, Cava F, Jacobs-Wagner C, Fikrig E: Pathogen-mediated manipulation of arthropod microbiota to promote infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jan 31; 2017 Jan 17. PMID: 28096373 •Wang P, Zhu S, Yang L, Cui S, Pan W, Jackson R, Zheng Y, Rongvaux A, Sun Q, Yang G, Gao S, Lin R, You F, Flavell R, Fikrig E: Nlrp6 regulates intestinal antiviral innate immunity. Science. 2015 Nov 13; 2015 Oct 22. PMID: 26494172