# Tick Resources Core

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · 2020 · $192,500

## Abstract

TICK RESOURCES CORE
Abstract: The overarching goal of the Tick Resources Core within this P01 application is to provide support to
all three research projects and share reagents, materials and new technologies with the scientific community.
Requests from the community will be handled through the Biodefense and Emerging Infections Research
Resources Repository (BEI) website (www.beiresources.org). BEI was established by the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases and has been managed under contract by the American Type Culture
Collection for fifteen years. Dr. Ulrike Munderloh, a Professor at the University of Minnesota, will be the director
of this technical core and is ideally suited to manage the facility. First, she has been a pioneer in the field of
tick-pathogen interactions by developing and refining techniques for mutagenesis, plasmid-based
complementation, and functional genomics for rickettsial agents in addition to inventing a membrane feeder
system for ticks. Second, her laboratory has contributed to 22 out of 30 Rickettsiales species for sequencing in
the “Rickettsiales Genomes” project, and supplied 10 of the 14 isolates deposited in BEI. Third, Dr. Munderloh
has an outstanding record of distributing tick cell lines and microbial isolates to the scientific community. Aim#1
of the Tick Resources Core will provide currently available tick-vector-based tools to support the research for
all three research projects within this P01 application. Aim#2 of the Tick Resources Core will develop novel cell
lines suitable for analyses of immune pathways that are activated or repressed in response to pathogens,
symbionts and selected microbiota. This will be achieved through RNA interference, Clustered Regularly
Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR/Cas9), reporter tags and overexpression assays. Model
organisms have a myriad of tools that facilitate the study of pathogen-arthropod interactions. They also provide
critical insights to the field of entomology, microbiology and immunology. However, we present strong evidence
in this P01 application that Ixodes scapularis ticks seem to be built on entirely different principles that govern
microbial pathogenesis and immunity. Therefore, a strong Tick Resources Core is of utmost importance to
support all three Projects within this P01 application. By providing existing I. scapularis-based tools and
developing novel technologies to investigators, the Tick Resources Core will contribute to uncover novel
paradigms in I. scapularis-microbial interactions. This scientific knowledge has potential implications for basic
and translational science.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9976331
- **Project number:** 5P01AI138949-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
- **Principal Investigator:** Ulrike Gertrud Munderloh
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $192,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-13 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9976331

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9976331, Tick Resources Core (5P01AI138949-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9976331. Licensed CC0.

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