Institute of Zoology SAS
Topic
Study of interactions between Borrelia burgdorferi lipoproteins and tick signaling pathways
PhD. program
Microbiology and virology
Year of admission
2025
Name of the supervisor
RNDr. Juraj Koči, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave
Annotation
The spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, adapts to different environments, such as tick disease vectors and vertebrate hosts, during its circulation in nature. Regulation of the expression of surface lipoproteins is one of the main mechanisms of adaptation of B. burgdorferi in a new environment. Sufficient information about the interactions between specific borrelia lipoproteins and tick signaling pathways during the persistence and transmission of borrelia is a key condition for understanding this process. This dissertation focuses on identifying and characterizing B. burgdorferi molecules interacting with selected tick molecules.