Lindsay Sidak-Loftis’ Three Minute Thesis
Tick Born Diseases: Can we Prevent them?
As tick borne diseases are the rise, we are limited in our ability to combat them due to lack of a vaccines, misdiagnosis, and an increase in drug resistance leading to the need of novel methods to defeat them. One potential method is to target the pathogens within the tick, but to do this we have to understand what allows for the acquisition, maintenance, and transmission of a pathogen. One factor is the tick’s innate immune system, though little is known about it. So, we can compare the tick’s genome to that of other species with a more defined immune system and see what similarities are shared. One pathway that is highly conserved and has been shown to interact with other innate immune processes in the mammalian system is the Unfolded Protein Response. My research focuses on characterizing this pathway within ticks to determine if it has a role in pathogen colonization and transmission.
Lindsay Sidak-Loftis is a third year Ph.D. student in the Immunology and Infectious Disease program. She is originally from Arizona where she obtained her Bachelors’ degree in Biology at Northern Arizona University. During that time, she got involved in research working on a variety of projects in a molecular genetics lab that helped define her career path. Lindsay’s goal is to understand vector borne diseases and what allows for them to survive within their respective vector.