OUR TEAM
The assembled team of project leaders represents a highly collaborative group of investigators who have worked together for the past two decades on various aspects of tick-borne infection research. Each Principal Investigator or PI brings specific expertise to the Research Projects and Technical or Administrative Core. Our team encompasses substantial expertise in entomology, microbiology, immunology, and infectious diseases.
Dr. Utpal Pal
Lead PI; Project 1 & Administrative Core Leader
University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Pal, who is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland, is a recognized expert in studies involving host-pathogen interactions. He has served as lead PI of this Program Project since 2018, in addition to leading the Admin Core and Project 1, which explores the regulation of tick immune-development via Ixodes signaling pathways. Dr. Pal has led a number of critical discoveries in research on Lyme borreliosis and Ixodes biology, particularly in the area of B. burgdorferi interactions with the tick vector and the mammalian host, including the discovery of new tick receptors and immune molecules, and novel signaling pathways that impact the life cycle of borrelial pathogens. He has been continually funded by the NIH to study Lyme disease since 2006, and has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles. For the past decade, he has been serving on the Scientific Advisory Board of Global Lyme Alliance and previously served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Vaccines and Therapeutics, Tick-Borne Disease Working Group. He is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology, and is an MPower Professor through the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership. Read more
Dr. Erol Fikrig
Co-PI, Project 3 Leader
Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. Fikrig is the Waldemar von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at Yale University School of Medicine, and the Chief of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital. He has led Project 3 of this grant since 2018, which will investigate the metabolic and signaling pathway components (of Projects 1 and 2) as anti-tick vaccine targets. He is one of the most successful, productive, and senior leaders in vector-borne diseases. Dr. Fikrig is internationally recognized for his seminal contributions in advancing research involving tick-borne infections. His initial scientific studies contributed to the development of an FDA-approved human Lyme disease vaccine. Dr. Fikrig has authored more than 400 research articles, including reviews and book chapters. These studies have led to a number of pivotal discoveries in infectious diseases, particularly in tick-borne and mosquito-transmitted diseases. He is the recipient of many awards, including an NIH Merit award, and has been extramurally funded by NIH since the early 1990s. Read more
Dr. Joao H. F. Pedra
Co-PI, Project 2 Leader
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Dr. Pedra is a tenured Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Since 2018, he has led the P01’s Project 2, which focuses on tick metabolic pathways and regulation of tick immunity. His research program is directed towards understanding tick-borne diseases, particularly through the use of modern techniques in biochemistry, molecular, structural, and systems biology to comprehend fundamental interactions between the arthropod vector, pathogen, and mammalian host. Dr. Pedra has led many pivotal discoveries in various aspects of tick immunobiology and metabolism, such as determining the existence of a novel IMD circuit in the tick vector. Altogether, Dr. Pedra has been federally funded to study tick-borne diseases since 2007 and has published more than 60 articles on tick immunobiology and the pathogenesis of Lyme borreliosis and anaplasmosis. He is also the President of the American Society for Rickettsiology and Chair of the Transmission of Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases Study Section for the National Institutes of Health. In 2022, Dr. Pedra received the Dr. Mark E. Shirtliff PhD Student Mentor Award, Graduate Program in Life Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Read more
Dr. Jonathan Oliver
Tick Core Leader
University of Minnesota
Dr. Oliver is an Associate Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. His research, supported by state and federal agencies, has been focused on the development and optimization of diagnostics and techniques to assess vector-pathogen interactions, including the development of an artificial membrane-based feeding system for ticks. After serving as a co-investigator during the initial cycle of this P01, where he generated and provided numerous critical reagents, including I. scapularis ticks, tick cell lines, tick-borne pathogens, and mutants for use by the collaborating institutions of this Program Project, Dr. Oliver now leads the Tick Resources Core. Read more
Dr. Ulrike Munderloh
Tick Core Co-I
University of Minnesota
Dr. Munderloh, Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, led the Tick Core from 2018-2024, and will continue participating in the second cycle of this Program Project as a co-investigator. She and her colleagues have established a large number of tick cell lines that are widely used by laboratories across the globe. Her group also isolated several species of tick-borne pathogens and symbionts, such as Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Rickettsia buchneri, sequenced and annotated their genomes, and analyzed their transcriptome during tick cell infection. Additionally, her lab contributed 22 of 30 Rickettsiales species for sequencing in the “Rickettsiales Genomes” project, and supplied 10 of the 14 isolates deposited in BEI. Her dissemination of numerous research tools, including tick cell lines and microbial isolates, have supported the ongoing P01 studies, as well as other researchers in the field. Dr. Munderloh has made many seminal discoveries regarding the cellular and molecular interactions between ticks and their associated pathogens; she has published more than 100 research articles and was continuously funded by the NIH since the late 1990s. Read more
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Our team is also served by a Scientific Advisory Board, comprised of senior researchers of international reputation relevant to the Research Projects. The Board is charged with regular meetings to discuss findings, strategic planning, and troubleshooting throughout the project.
We are in the process of appointing a new panel of exports to the Scientific Advisory Board - stay tuned for more!