Janakiram Seshu
University of Texas at San Antonio, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States, and there is no human vaccine; treatment relies on antibiotics after infection. The bacterium that causes it, the corkscrew-shaped spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, survives by cycling between ticks and wild animals, especially mice.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
- Topics
Lyme disease
Borrelia burgdorferi
spirochete
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- 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).
- Test whether immunization reduces Borrelia burgdorferi in the vector by feeding naive Ixodes scapularis larvae and nymphs on vaccinated mice and measuring their ability to acquire the spirochete and transmit it to naive mice.
- Evaluate adjuvants and new Borrelia strains that over-express surface lipoproteins to increase potency enough for a single-dose, oral, reservoir-targeted bait vaccine.
- Exploit genetically defined mutants that lose host-adaptation control, lacking the regulator BadR or carrying eight substituted residues in Carbon Storage Regulator A, as sources of natively folded lipoproteins in their natural surface proportions.
More about the research
That suggests a different strategy: instead of vaccinating people, vaccinate the wild rodents that keep the bacterium in circulation, breaking the cycle before ticks ever reach humans.
Why it matters
Lyme disease causes substantial illness and health care costs in endemic regions of the United States, and no human vaccine is available. A bait vaccine that immunizes wild mice could reduce the number of infected ticks in the environment and lower human cases, benefiting residents of endemic areas and people with outdoor occupations. The platform may be adaptable to block other tick-borne infections.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jenifer Coburn
Medical College of Wisconsin, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
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.
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.
Linden T Hu
Tufts University, MA·Microbiology & Immunology
Follow patients from acute Lyme disease diagnosis until they recover or develop PTLDS, comparing co-infections, inflammation, immune cell types, autoantibodies and bacterial traits, and build a large shared specimen bank.
The school
University of Texas at San Antonio: 10 labs on PI Pages, $172M a year on research, 129 research doctorates a year.
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