We study glycoproteins, which affect the success of tick feeding on the host (such as humans), or the transmission of pathogens to the host.
When you take a close look on a tick, it seems a little alien. Indeed, it is so resistant, that itis comparable to the Alien itself. You can put it into the vacuum and it survives. You can wash it into a washing machine and ...it survives.
Not even Alien is equipped for blood-feeding as perfectly as the tick. Ticks make an incision first, cut the skin and then secrete cement which glues them in the injury. This is of course annoying. Worse is the fact, that ticks transmit a number of pathogens. One for all - tick-borne encephalitis virus.
We study glycoproteins, which affect the success of tick feeding on the host (such as humans), or the transmission of pathogens to the host.
We can identify the glycoproteins made by the tick itself. For example in salivary glands, where they are red, cell nuclei are blue and the green corresponds to the tick chitin skeleton. Similarly, we can view tick glycans in their guts.
For those who do not like ticks, we have a solution - cell cultures.
