Education and Experience

• PhD, Pathobiology (Bacteriology), University of Connecticut
• MS, Pathobiology, University of Connecticut
• BS, Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut
• Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Postdoctoral Fellow  (NIH-NIAID) Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Lebanon, NH, USA
• Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Biodefense Research Fellow Virology, Plum Island Animal Disease Center, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Northeast Area, Orient Point, NY, USA

Major Interests and Current Research

Broad Research Interests:

• Host-pathogen interactions
• Mechanisms of bacterial pathogenicity
• Rational design of vaccines and therapeutics against human and animal pathogens
• Mononuclear phagocytes (i.e., monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells) and how they modulate immune responses, susceptibility to bacterial pathogens, and vaccine efficacy
• Mechanisms orchestrating pulmonary inflammation during infection or disease
• Trained immunity

Current Specific Research Interests:

• How do human and animal pathogenic Mycoplasma interact with host mononuclear phagocytes (MPs) to elicit protective or maladaptive immune responses?
• How do environmental factors such as diet, microbiome, environmental toxins and pollutants, stress etc., affect the phenotype of host MPs, and how does this affect vaccine efficacy or susceptibility to bacterial pathogens?
• How do preexisting conditions (ie. asthma, COPD, previous or concurrent infections, etc.) affect the phenotype of host MPs, and how does this influence vaccine efficacy and susceptibility to bacterial pathogens?

Biography

I am a Bacteriologist and Immunologist fascinated by how bacterial pathogens interact with our immune cells to result in responses that sometime protect us from disease and other times cause harmful responses. I earned my Ph.D. in Pathobiology from UConn, where I researched how Mycoplasma pneumoniae lipoproteins in vaccines can lead to maladaptive immunity. As an NIH-funded postdoctoral associate in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, I studied the role of mononuclear phagocytes in lung inflammation and disease and uncovered a novel role for natural antibodies in inducing allergic immune responses. Following Dartmouth, I worked at the USDA Plum Island Animal Disease Center as an ORISE Biodefense Postdoctoral Research Fellow where I studied Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus, a major threat to cloven-hoofed animals. I then returned to UConn as a Research Associate at the Center of Excellence for Vaccine Research prior to becoming promoted to Assistant Research Professor.

My current research conducted in collaboration with professors Steven Geary, Steven Szczepanek and Edan Tulman involves investigating host-pathogen interactions and factors associated with the virulence of Mycoplasma pathogens of humans and animals, with the ultimate goal of developing safer and more efficacious vaccines and therapeutics. Among the Mycoplasma pathogens we study are Mycoplasma pneumoniae (cause of primary atypical pneumonia in people), Mycoplasma mycoides cluster pathogens that cause pleuropneumonia and mastitis in goats and cattle, and Mycoplasma bovis which causes pneumonia and mastitis in cattle and Mycoplasma gallisepticum which causes chronic respiratory disease in avian species such as chickens and turkeys.

We utilize multidisciplinary approaches to understand the molecular, cellular, and system kinetics of Mycoplasma infections in vivo in the natural host, and mouse models of infection. My expertise is in utilizing  high dimensional comparative approaches (transcriptomics, proteomics,  high-parameter flow cytometry, etc.,) to understand which host-pathogen interactions culminate in disease or protection from infection. This understanding is crucial for informing downstream development of therapeutic and prophylactic treatments that will help us reduce the burden that Mycoplasma pathogens place on human and animal health.

Selected Publications

Mara AB, Rawat K, King WT, Jakubzick CV. Natural antibodies drive type 2 immunity in response to damage-associated molecular patterns. JCI Insight. 2024 Mar 12;9(8):e177230. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.177230.

Li X, Mara AB, Musial SC, Kolling FW, Gibbings SL, Gerebtsov N, Jakubzick CV. Coordinated chemokine expression defines macrophage subsets across tissues. Nat Immunol. 2024 May 2. doi: 10.1038/s41590-024-01826-9

Rawat K, Mara AB, King WT, Nnam CF, Jakubzick CV. Immunogenicity Threshold in Allogeneic Cells Impacts CTL Response to Nondominant Congenic Antigens. J Immunol. 2023 Dec 1;211(11):1623-1629. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.2300548.

Rawat K, Tewari A, Li X, Mara AB, King WT, Gibbings SL, Nnam CF, Kolling FW, Lambrecht BN, Jakubzick CV. CCL5-producing migratory dendritic cells guide CCR5+ monocytes into the draining lymph nodes. J Exp Med. 2023 Jun 5;220(6):e20222129

Mara AB, Gavitt TD, Tulman ER, Miller JM, He W, Reinhardt EM, Ozyck RG, Goodridge ML, Silbart LK, Szczepanek SM, Geary SJ. Vaccination with Mycoplasma pneumoniae membrane lipoproteins induces IL-17A driven neutrophilia that mediates Vaccine-Enhanced Disease. NPJ Vaccines. 2022 Jul 29;7(1):86.

Gavitt TD, Mara AB, Goodridge ML, Ozyck RG, Reinhardt E, Miller JM, Hunte M, Tulman ER, Frasca S Jr, Silbart LK, Geary SJ, Szczepanek SM. B cells oppose Mycoplasma pneumoniae vaccine enhanced disease and limit bacterial colonization of the lungs. NPJ Vaccines. 2022 Oct 31;7(1):130. doi: 10.1038/s41541-022-00556-z. PMID: 36310317.

Gavitt TD, Hartmann AK, Sawant SS, Mara AB, Szczepanek SM, Rouge JL. A GATA3 Targeting Nucleic Acid Nanocapsule for In Vivo Gene Regulation in Asthma. ACS Nano. 2021 Jul 27;15(7):11192-11201.

Mara AB, Gavitt TD, Tulman ER, Geary SJ, Szczepanek SM. Lipid moieties of Mycoplasma pneumoniae lipoproteins are the causative factor of vaccine-enhanced disease. NPJ Vaccines. 2020 Apr 8;5(1):31.

 

For a more complete list of my scientific contributions, please refer to my NCBI Bibliography: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/arlind.mara.1/bibliography/public/