Departmental Affiliations
Thomas M. Hart, PhD, is an infectious disease microbiologist studying the molecular mechanisms by which Lyme disease bacteria infect humans and cause disease.
Research Interests
Microbiology, vector-borne diseases, Tickborne diseases, Lyme disease, host-pathogen interactions, protein-protein interactions, bacterial transcriptomics, systems biology
Experiences & Accomplishments
To infect a human host, Lyme disease bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, must transition from the tick vector to the mammalian host. This transition exposes the previously tick-resident B. burgdorferi to new environmental pressures, such as a new immune system to avoid and new tissues to colonize. Dr. Hart examines the ways in which Lyme Borrelia sense and adapt to these new pressures to successfully infect the host and cause disease. The broad goal is to identify new targets for vaccines and therapeutics to combat Lyme disease.
Select Publications
Hart TM, Sonnert ND, Tang X, Chaurasia R, Allen PE … Carlyon JA, Palm NW, Fikrig E, Ring AM. (2024). An atlas of human vector-borne microbe interactions reveals pathogenicity mechanisms. Cell, 187(15): 4113-4127.
Pine M, Arora G, Hart TM, Bettini E, Gaudette BT … Pardi N. (2023). Development of an mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccine against Lyme disease. Mol Ther, 31(9): 2702-2714.
Marcinkiewicz AL, Brangulis K, Dupuis AP, Hart TM, Zamba-Campero M … Kolokotronis SO, Lin YP. (2023). Structural evolution of an immune evasion determinant shapes pathogen host tropism. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 120(27): e2301549120.
Tang X, Arora G, Matias J, Hart TM, Cui Y, Fikrig E. (2022). A tick C1q protein alters infectivity of the Lyme disease agent by modulating interferon γ. Cell Rep, 41(8): 111673.
Hart TM, Dupuis A, Tufts DM, Blom AM, Starkey S … Lin YP. (2021). Host tropism determination by convergent evolution of immunological evasion in the Lyme disease system. PLoS Pathog, 17(7): e1009801.