Jenifer Coburn
Medical College of Wisconsin, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in the Northern Hemisphere, and its range and case numbers keep growing. The bacterium behind most U.S.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
Lyme disease
Borrelia burgdorferi
spirochete
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Test whether the interaction between the Borrelia burgdorferi surface protein P66 and the macrophage receptor SIRPα weakens innate and adaptive immunity, comparing p66-deficient and gene-restored bacteria in mice over six infection time points.
- Quantify bacterial loads, dissemination kinetics, and antibody and cellular responses in mice using quantitative PCR and culture, to define how a bacterial "don't eat me" protein reshapes the immune response that fails to clear infection.
- Identify which known adhesins mediate Greeting interactions with activated blood vessel linings, using a genome-wide screen that may also uncover previously unrecognized Borrelia adhesins.
- Clarify the roles of adhesins such as DbpB/A, OspC and P66 in endothelial Potentiation and bacterial transmigration into joint tissue, using isogenic strain sets, intravital microscopy and short- and long-term mouse infection models.
More about the research
cases, Borrelia burgdorferi, first establishes a local skin infection after a tick bite, then spreads through the bloodstream to many tissues, where it can persist and is often associated with arthritis. Both projects here ask how the bacterium's surface proteins let it travel and survive. One examines how it avoids being engulfed by immune cells; the other maps how it attaches to blood vessel walls and crosses into tissues.
Why it matters
Lyme disease places a substantial burden on health systems in regions where infected ticks are common. Pinpointing which bacterial surface proteins drive escape from blood vessels, and how one of them blunts immune clearance, could reveal targets for vaccines, therapies or diagnostics aimed at blocking spread to joints and other tissues and at explaining why infection persists in people with intact immune systems.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Janakiram Seshu
University of Texas at San Antonio, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine the correlates of protection from Purified Borrelial Lipoproteins by comparing antibody levels and bacteria-killing (borrelicidal) activity after oral versus injected dosing in C3H/HeN laboratory mice and white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus).
Timothy Casselli
University of South Alabama, AL·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine whether the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier, the cell layer separating blood from the fluid around the brain, is where Borrelia burgdorferi and immune cells enter the central nervous system in infected mice.
Karen Cyndari
University of Iowa, IA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Measure whether Borrelia burgdorferi infection breaks down the tight-junction barrier formed by resident synovial macrophages, using infected human synovial explants imaged by confocal microscopy and histomorphometry.
The school
Medical College of Wisconsin: 17 labs on PI Pages, $360M a year on research, 44 research doctorates a year.
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