0
ILRI’s Tick Unit has been selected as Africa’s first outpost for the Tick Cell Biobank. The parent Tick Cell Biobank at the Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, houses a collection of approximately 55 cell lines derived from argasid and ixodid ticks, which are of both veterinary and medical importance. This parent Biobank also has a limited collection of tick-borne bacteria.
Ticks are blood-feeding arthropods that transmit many pathogens that cause diseases of humans and animals. These diseases are caused by bacteria, viruses and protozoa and tick cell culture systems can enable studies to understand how tick cells function and how ticks transmit these pathogens.
Funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Global Challenges Research Fund, the Biobank Outpost project will facilitate access of the tick cell lines by researchers in low- and middle- income countries in Africa, South East Asia and South America. The countries selected for the Outposts include Kenya, Malaysia and Brazil.
In the lead-up to establishing the ILRI outpost, two prominent scientists, Lesley Bell-Sakyi and Ulrike Munderloh, trained African scientists on the use and application of tick cell cultures. Researchers from Kenya, Tunisia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Benin attended the workshop held on 20-22 January and equipped potential users in Africa with introductory skills on handling and manipulating tick cell lines, which differ significantly from mammalian cell cultures, and developing networks for future collaborations on ticks and tick-borne disease.
Bell-Sakyi, who manages the parent Tick Cell Biobank said, ‘The Outposts are designed build capacity for tick cell-based research in the host institutes and countries, make it easier and cheaper for scientists in Asia, Africa and South America to access tick cell lines, facilitate generation of novel tick cell lines from local tick species and lead to more and better locally generated solutions for local and regional tick and tick-borne disease problems,’ she added.
Ulrike Munderloh, researcher and course director for medical entomology at the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota said the endeavour will be strengthened by the availability of tick colonies and animal facilities for in vivo studies of the entire tick-borne pathogen life cycle at ILRI.’
Naftaly Githaka, ILRI’s Tick Unit manager, who will oversee the project, said ‘the Tick Unit already maintains over 12 tick colonies from various tick species. Nearly 20 tick species can also be found at the ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station, allowing researchers to embark on projects to understand disease transmission at the wildlife-livestock interface.’
February 6, 2020 - ILRI
