Mission

 The research activity of our group focuses on:

•  Applying genomic and proteomic methodologies to discover salivary or midgut effectors that determine arthropod vectorial capacity.
• Vertebrate proteolytic cascades that are regulated by arthropod salivary secretion in the sites of disease vector infestation, facilitating blood meal uptake by the vector and/or pathogen transmission
• Demonstrating the pharmacological action of arthropod salivary proteins in the vertebrate host (hemostasis, vascular biology, immunomodulation) and their potential for the treatment of human diseases (cancer, multiple sclerosis, allergic asthma) using transgenic animals and animal models for human diseases.

 The research projects of our group aim:

• To explore the basic mechanisms of pathogen transmission by disease vectors as the conceptual basis for the development of novel methods/tools (e.g. vaccines, diagnostic kits) for controlling vector-borne diseases.
• To test recombinant arthropod salivary proteins in animal models (for human diseases) with an ultimate goal to describe the pharmacological action of the proteins in the vertebrate host and to test their potential for drug development.
• To uncover the structural basis of the stringent target specificity of arthropod salivary protease inhibitors; arthropod protease inhibitors are active against a limited number of vertebrate serine and cysteine proteases.