TBD Turku Research

Research

Tick Biology, Ecology and Evolution

Hard ticks in the genus Ixodes, for instance Ixodes ricinus (the sheep or castor bean tick) and Ixodes persulcatus (the taiga tick), have recently increased in abundance in Finland and elsewhere in northern Europe. This has happened in many locations and under different environments, also in urban and suburban areas nearby big cities. Not all of the reasons for these increases have been examined, but a substantial role for the changing climate has commonly been stressed. Shorter and warmer winters, prolonged growing seasons and other climatic changes are suggested to have direct effects on tick and pathogen performance and indirect effects on tick dynamics via density and range shifts in mammalian and avian host animal populations.

Although several tick species are present, at least occasionally, in Finland, only I. ricinus and I. persulcatus are considered as health threats to humans and domestic animals. These two species look superficially similar, and they may occur at same areas and environments. Both species may carry same bacterial, viral and protozoan pathogens, and they also share hosts in nature: e.g. small rodents, hares, deer, raccoon dogs, passerine birds and humans and their companion animals.

More information:

Ticks and tick-borne pathogens in Finland

Tick Hosts, Pathogen Reservoirs and Disease Hazard

Understanding which wildlife species feed ticks and maintain tick-borne pathogens is essential for assessing disease hazard and developing effective prevention strategies. Our research investigates how host communities influence pathogen transmission across different environments, with particular emphasis on urban and rural landscapes. Using molecular blood meal analyses, pathogen genotyping, and microbiome profiling, we identify the vertebrate hosts that sustain tick populations and pathogen circulation, examine the ecological sources of human-pathogenic Borrelia strains, and explore how previous blood meals shape the tick microbiome. Together, these studies improve our understanding of the ecological drivers of disease hazard and support the development of targeted prevention measures.

Contacts:
Jani Sormunen

Citizen Science for Tick Surveillance and Exposure Mapping

Large-scale citizen science provides unprecedented opportunities to monitor tick distributions and human exposure, but public observations are influenced by both ecological and human behavioural biases. Our research develops statistical methods that identify and account for these biases, transforming citizen-science observations into reliable estimates of tick occurrence and human exposure. By integrating large-scale citizen science data from our Punkkilive-platform (www.punkkilive.fi/en) with environmental data, field surveillance, and epidemiological analyses, we produce high-resolution maps of tick distributions and exposure risk, as well as their environmental drivers. These approaches improve disease risk assessment and provide scalable tools for surveillance under environmental change.

Contacts:
Jani Sormunen

Experimental TBD Desingns In Vitro

More information coming soon.

TBD In Vitro and In Vivo Immunology

Current diagnostic methods for tick-borne CNS infections, have limitations, highlighting the need to develop new diagnostic approaches. This need can be met through the better understanding of immunopathogenesis induced by the causative microbes and the host immune responses.

Various laboratory methods can be used to study the immunopathogenesis and induced host immune responses in tick-borne CNS infections. Single-cell RNA sequencing represents a sophisticated molecular technique facilitating the thorough examination of cellular transcriptomes at a single-cell level. Diverging from conventional flow cytometry approaches, scRNA-seq offers a surface-marker-free analysis for cell identification. Therefore, it serves as a fundamental tool for comprehensive analysis of cellular heterogeneity within populations and the identification of rare cell subsets within a population and it enables gene expression analyses in set-ups with low cellular densities, such as CSF samples.

Contacts:
Jukka Hytönen
Jessica Tikkala
Varpu Rinne
Jukka Alinikula

New Biomarkers and Metabolomics in TBD Diagnostics

Metabolomic analysis of small molecules via UHPLC-MS/MS technique offers a powerful tool for detecting biomarkers in tick-borne diseases like Lyme borreliosis. By analyzing biological sample matrices (e.g., serum, cerebrospinal fluid) from patients with acute infection, this technique reveals unique metabolic profiles associated with the disease. Beyond tick-borne diseases, UHPLC-MS/MS can be applied to other infectious diseases, providing a versatile platform for detecting pathogen-specific biomarkers and pathways. This approach holds promise for differentiating between various infections and tracking disease improvement, opening new avenues for precision diagnostics in infectious disease management, complementing current serology assays.

Contacts:
Jukka Hytönen
Maarit Karonen
Ilari Kuukkanen

Aurum building, Department of Chemistry, University of Turku
Picture: Focus-Video
Copyright: University of Turku

New Antibiotics for Lyme Borreliosis

More information coming soon.

Emerging TBD Epidemiology in Finland

In addition to borrelia and tick-borne encephalitis virus, ticks can harbor a wide variety of other pathogens, many of which have an uncertain relevance to human health. As climate change continues to increase tick abundance and expand their geographic range, research on emerging tick-borne diseases has become increasingly important. For example, we have identified the first documented human infection caused by Neoehrlichia mikurensis in Finland.

To date, ticks, collected during a nationwide campaign in 2015 in Finland, have been screened for emerging tick-borne pathogens. Through this screening, Spiroplasma ixodetis was detected, providing the first evidence of this bacterium in ticks in Finland.

A second nationwide citizen science tick collection campaign is currently underway (2026), seeking to update knowledge about the occurrence of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in Finland following a decade of warming climate.

Contacts:
Jukka Hytönen
Jani Sormunen

Development of diagnostics for tick-borne infections

Ticks and the Lyme disease they transmit are increasingly found almost everywhere in Finland. When detected early, Lyme disease can be effectively treated with antibiotics, but diagnosing the disease can sometimes be challenging. Researchers in the UpTick project are therefore aiming to develop a new measurement method that would make the diagnosis of Lyme disease easier and faster.

More information: https://www.sakarialhopuronsaatio.fi/en/blog/a-new-method-for-borreliosis-diagnostics-under-development.html