Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Ecology of Vectors and Pathogens at the Institute of Parasitology, Biology Center, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Research in the lab centers around two tick-borne diseases. The first (Lyme Disease) is on understanding the difference in strategies used by various European genospecies within the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex, the causative agent of Lyme disease, to infect both the mammal and the tick. This includes determining the biological drivers associated with vector competence of the tick and pathogen variation at the species and strain level. We also work on understanding how this can possibly lead to specific ecological niches. The second area of research is in investigating the transmission dynamics of the old-world relapsing fever Borrelia, Borrelia duttonii using a tick-animal model.
Was involved in 2 European FP7 consortiums 1. ANTIGONE (ANTIcipating the Global Onset of Novel Epidemics) 2011–2015 2. ANTIDotE (Anti-Tick vaccines to Prevent Tick-Borne Diseases of Europe) 2013–2018
Postdoctoral Experience
May 2007 – April 2012 – Visiting fellow, Laboratory of Zoonotic Pathogens, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, Montana
Apr 2006 – April 2007 – Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Vectors and Pathogens, Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, CAS, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Running Grant Projects in the Czech Republic
Co-P.I. - Czech Science Foundation: Probing specific interactions of well-defined glycosaminoglycans with European Lyme disease borrelia adhesins at atomic resolution. (2023–2025)
Co-P.I. - Czech Science Foundation: Structural and bio-nanomechanical view at bacterial dissemination in the host. (July 2022-June 2025)
P.I. CAS MOBILITY PLUS (Czech-Japan): Defining a role of adhesins in cell invasion and propulsive force generation of Lyme disease spirochetes (2025–2026)
P.I. CAS MOBILITY (Czech-Poland): Functional characterization of salivary proteins expressed by the soft tick Ornithodoros moubata and their role in pathogenic spirochete transmission (2024–2026)
Previous grants
P. I. - Czech Science Foundation: Delineating the role of Borrelia afzelii genes required for dissemination within an infected tick during feeding (2017–2019).
P.I. CAS MOBILITY PLUS (Czech-Taiwan): Characterizations of synthetic glycosaminoglycans with European Lyme Disease borrelia adhesins (2023–2024)
P.I. for Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MEYS) mobility grants between Czech Republic and Austria (2019–2021 – Prof. Peter Hinterdorfer) and (2020–2022 – Prof. Norbert Muller)
P. I. –Technology Agency of the Czech Republic: Identification of early Lyme disease serological markers (2017–2018 and 2020)
Mentoring
Total Defended theses: One Ph.D., three M.Sc. and twenty B.Sc. projects, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia.
Student Grants obtained under Dr. Regos' supervision: 1 Ph.D. student grant (2015–2016), 3 M.S. Student grants (2018(2),2020), 8 B.S. student grants (2017, 2019(3), 2020, 2021,2024,2025) obtained from the University of South Bohemia.
Current Status: Mentoring 1 Post-Doc, 3 Ph.D. students and 4 B.Sc. students, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia.
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (IF: 5.293): Research Topic - Biological Drivers Of Vector-Pathogen Interactions - Vol I (E-book available) and Vol II
Frontiers in Tropical Diseases : research Topic – Understanding Glocalisation in Vector-Borne Disease Dynamics and Ecology
Pathogens (MDPI: IF: 3.492) - Section -Ticks
Conferences Organised
5th International Conference on Relapsing Fever–Ceske Budejovice, Czechia,17th–19thJuly 2023. 2nd French Czech Tick Meeting – Ceske Budejovice, Czechia, 25th to 26th September 2023
Intellectual Property
Utility model No. 2023-41212: Biosensor for detection of bacterial and viral pathogens
Relevant Publications (Last 5 years):
Hejduk L., Muller N., Rathner A., Štěrba J., Hung S.-C., Chyan C.-L., Rego R.O.M., Strnad M. 2025: Navigating infection by pathogenic spirochetes: The host-bacteria interface at the atomic level. Protein Science 34: e70185.
Pekľanská M., Kuníková K., Vlčková R., Slabová H., Hartmann D., Volfova K., Rudolf I., Šikutová S., Rego R. O. M., et al. 2025: Experimental evidence rules out mosquitoes as vectors of Lyme disease. Parasites and Vectors 18: 206.
Kumar S., Mašková H., Kuzminova A., Curda P., Doudová L., Štěrba J., Kylián O., Rego R. O. M., Straňák V. 2025: Tailored functionalization of plasmonic AgNPs/C:H:N:O nanocomposite for sensitive and selective detection. Journal of Biophotonics18: e202400353.
Strnad M., Vancová M., Rego R. O. M. 2024: Borrelia Borreliella burgdorferi. Trends in Microbiology 32: 1253–1254.
Porcelli S., Heckmann A., Deshuillers P.L., Wu-Chuang A., Galon C., Mateos-Hernández L., Rakotobe S., Canini L., Rego R. O. M., et al. 2024: Co-infection dynamics of B. afzelii and TBEV in C3H mice: insights and implications for future research. Infection and Immunity 92: e0024924.
Strnad, M., Koizumi, N., Nakamura S., Vancova, M., Rego R.O.M. 2024: It’s not all about flagella-sticky invasion by pathogenic spirochetes. Trends in Parasitology 40: 378–385
Jackson-Litteken C.D., Guo W., Hogland B.A., Ratliff C.T., McFadden L., Fullerton M.S., Voth D.E., Rego R. O. M., Blevins J.S. 2024: Development and validation of systems for genetic manipulation of the Old World tick-borne relapsing fever spirochete, Borrelia duttonii. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 18: e0012348.
Różańska-Wróbel J., Migalska M., Urbanowicz A., Grzybek M., Rego R. O. M., et.al., 2024: Interplay between vertebrate adaptive immunity and bacterial infectivity genes: Bank vole MHC versus Borrelia afzelii OspC. Molecular Ecology 33: e17534.
Filatov S., Štěrba J., Dyčka F., Rego R. O. M. 2023: A simple non-invasive method to collect soft tick saliva reveals differences in Ornithodoros moubata saliva composition between ticks infected and uninfected with Borrelia duttonii spirochetes. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology 13: 1112952.
Strnad M., Rudenko N., Rego R. O. M. 2023: Pathogenicity and Virulence of Borrelia burgdorferi. Virulence 14: 2265015.
Wu-Chuang A., Mateos-Hernández L., Maitre A., Rego R. O. M., et al.,. 2023: Microbiota perturbation by anti-microbiota vaccine reduces the colonization of Borrelia afzelii in Ixodes ricinus. Microbiome 11: 151.
Zinck C.B., Raveendram Thampy P., Uhlemann E.E., Adam H., Wachter J., Suchan D., Cameron A.D.S., Rego R. O. M., et al., 2023: Variation among strains of Borrelia burgdorferi in host tissue abundance and lifetime transmission determine the population strain structure in nature. PLoS Pathogens 19: e1011572.
Zinck C.B., Thampy P.R., Rego R. O. M., Brisson D., Ogden N.H., Voordouw M.J. 2022: Borrelia burgdorferi strain and host sex influence pathogen prevalence and abundance in the tissues of a laboratory rodent host. Molecular Ecology 31: 5872–5888.
Hart T.M., Dupuis II A.P., Tufts D.M., Blom A.M., Starkey S., Rego R.O.M. et al. 2021: Host tropism determination by convergent evolution of immunological evasion in the Lyme disease system. PLoS Pathogens 17: e1009801.
Wachter J., Martens C., Barbarian K.D., Rego R.O.M., Rosa P. 2021: Epigenomic landscape of Lyme disease spirochetes reveals novel motifs. mBio 12: e0128821.
Genné D., Rossel M., Sarr A., Battilotti F., Rais O., Rego R.O.M., Voordouw M.J. 2021: Competition between strains of Borrelia afzelii in the host tissues and consequences for transmission to ticks. ISME Journal 15: 2390–2400.
Strnad M., Oh Y.J., Vancová M., Hain L., Salo J., Grubhoffer L., Nebesarova J., Hytonen J., Hinterdorfer P., Rego R.O.M. 2021: Nanomechanical mechanisms of Lyme disease spirochete motility enhancement in extracellular matrix. Communications Biology 4: 268.
Book Chapter (Last 5 years)
Filatov S., Rego R. O. M. 2021: Argasidae: Distribution and Vectorial Capacity in a Changing Global Environment. In: P. Nuttall (Ed.), Climate, Ticks and Disease. CABI, Surrey, pp. 216–222.
