Develop the effective Lyme disease preventions and identify their protective mechanisms

Brangulis, K.*, Malfetano, J., Marcinkiewicz, A.L., Wang, A., Chen, Y.L., Yang, X., Lee, W., Bottazzi, M.E., Pal, U., Hsieh, C.L.*, Chen, W.H.*, Lin, Y.P.* (2024) Mechanistic insights into the structure-based design of a CspZ-targeting Lyme disease vaccine. Nat. Commun. 16: 2898

McKaig, C.W., Malfetano, J., Tran, Y., Yang, X., Pal, U., Wycoff, K., Lin, Y.P.* (2024) Complement therapeutic Factor H-IgG proteins as pre-exposure prophylaxes against Lyme borreliae infections. Biorxiv

Investigate the mechanisms of host preferences to maintain and spread Lyme disease bacteria

Marcinkiewicz, A.L., Brangulis, K.,* Hart, T.M., Dupuis, A.P. 2nd, Zamba‐Campero, M., Nowak, T.A., Stout, J.L., Akopjana, I., Kazaks, A., Bogans, J., Ciota, A.T., Kraiczy, P., Kolokotronis, S.O.*, Lin, Y.P.* (2023) Structural evolution of an immune evasion determinant shapes pathogen host tropism. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 120: e2301549120.

Combs, M.A., Tufts, D.M., Adams, B., Lin, Y.P., Kolokotronis, S.O., Diuk-Wasser, M.A. (2023) Host-adaptation drives strain diversity in a vector-borne disease system. PNAS Nexus 2: 234

Combs, M., Marcinkiewicz, A.L., Dupuis, A.P. II, Davis, A.D., Lederman, P., Nowak, T.A., Stout, J.L., Strle, K., Fingerle, V., Margos, G., Ciota, A.T., Diuk-Wasser, M.A., Kolokotronis, S.O.*, Lin, Y.P.* (2022) Phylogenomic diversity elucidates mechanistic insights into Lyme borreliae host tropism. mSystems 7: e0048822

Lin, Y.P.*, Tufts, D.M., Combs, M., Dupuis, A.P. 2nd, Marcinkiewicz, A.L., Hirsbrunner, A.D., Diaz, A.J., Blom, A.M., Strle, K., Davis, A.D., Kramer, L.D., Kolokotronis, S.O., Diuk-Wasser, M.A.* (2022) Cellular and immunological mechanisms influence host-adapted phenotypes in a vector-borne microparasite. Proc. Biol. Sci. 289: 20212087.

Define the role of tickborne co-infections in enhancing the Lyme disease severity.

Bonin, J.L., Torres, S. R., Marcinkiewicz, A. L., Duhamel, G.E., Yang, X., Pal, U., DiSpirito, J. M., Nowak, T.A., Lin, Y.P., MacNamara, K. C. (2024) Impact of E. muris infection on B. burgdorferi–induced joint pathology in mice. Front. Immunol. 15:1430419.

Selected Publications of the review papers to learn the background of our work:

Chen, W.H.,* Strych, U., Bottazzi, M.E., Lin, Y.P.* (2022) Past, present, and future of Lyme disease vaccines: Antigen engineering approaches and mechanistic insights. Expert Rev Vaccines. 21:1405-1417.

Lin, Y.P.*, Diuk-Wasser, M. A., Stevenson, B., Kraiczy, P.* (2020) Complement Evasion Contributes to Lyme Borreliae-Host Association. Trends in Parasitol. 36: 634.