Dhara Patel, Ph.D. student
I earned a M.S. in Microbiology and Immunology at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018, and received my B.S. in Biological Sciences in 2015 from the University of California, Irvine. My projects focus on studying the regulatory role of the cyclic nucleotides, c-di-AMP and c-di-GMP, in both Borreliella burgdorferi (Lyme disease), Leptospira interrogans(leptospirosis), and Treponema denticola (keystone periopathogen in Periodontal disease). I am particularly interested in how these molecules affect regulatory and adaptive responses and pathogenesis. I have worked with diadenylate and diguanylate cyclases in vitro and have been the first person to characterize these enzymes in the genus Treponema. I have also studied the sole Pilz-domain-containing protein in B. burgdorferi, PlzA. Of importance, is that this protein has both c-di-GMP-dependent and independent roles, and has been implicated as necessary for infection in vertebrates.