Leptospirosis Research
Leptospirosis Team
Melissa Caimano, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Medicine
Melissa Caimano received a B.S. degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1989. She attended graduate school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham doing her thesis work on the genetic elements involved in Streptococcus pneumoniae capsule biosynthesis. In 1996, Caimano began a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Justin Radolf at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, relocating to the University of Connecticut in 1999. Her work has focused primarily on the regulatory pathways and molecular mechanisms underlying mammalian host adaptation and maintenance of Borrelia burgdorferi within its natural enzootic cycle. Most notably, these studies have led to the discovery that the alternate sigma factor RpoS plays a critical role in the down-regulation, as well as up-regulation, of borrelial genes specifically in response to mammalian host signals. She has published more than 46 peer-reviewed articles on microbial pathogenesis and related areas in high impact journals. Her work examining the interaction between the Lyme disease spirochete and its arthropod vector is supported by grants awarded to her by the National Research Fund for Tick-Borne Diseases (NRFTD) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NIAID). Caimano currently is an associate professor in the UConn Health Department of Medicine. She also has served on the Editorial Board of Infection and Immunity since 2006.
André Alex Grassmann, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
André received his B.S. degree in Biological Sciences in 2009 from the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. Since his undergraduate research, André has studied pathogenic Leptospira and leptospirosis. He received his M.S. degree in 2011 and his Ph.D. in 2015, both from UFPel Biotechnology School. In 2013, he was awarded a one-year Science without Borders fellowship from the Brazilian government and joined Drs. Caimano and Radolf to investigate differential gene expression by Leptospira interrogans within the mammalian host to identify potential novel vaccine targets. After two years of postdoctoral research in Brazil, he returned to the Radolf and Caimano lab in 2017 to continue studying gene regulation in Leptospira during host infection. In 2019, André expanded his research to Borrelia burgdorferi, focusing on gene regulation in response to host- and vector-specific cues, particularly the convergence of c-di-GMP– and PlzA-dependent signaling with the RpoS pathway. In 2022, he was promoted to Instructor, and since 2024 he has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine. His current research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of B. burgdorferi gene regulation during the tick–mammal infectious cycle, which represents his major area of investigation. In addition, his research addresses pathogenesis and vaccine development against Treponema pallidum (syphilis) and Leptospira interrogans (leptospirosis).
EVERTON B. BETTIN, PH.D., POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Everton obtained his PhD degree in Biotechnology from the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), Brazil in 2022. The major focus of his thesis was the development of vaccines against Leptospirosis. In 2019, he was granted a one-year fellowship from the Brazilian government to join Drs. Grassmann and Caimano to study the unique leptospiral Omp85 proteins. After finishing his PhD in 2022, he returned to the Spirochete Research Labs as post-doctoral fellow to work on he development of a vaccine against infection by Treponema pallidum.