Michael W Curtis, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Email

mwcurtis@bcm.edu

Positions

Assistant Professor: Pediatrics-Tropical Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX, US
Laboratory for Vector Biology and Bacterial Pathogens

Research Fellow: Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States
Infection and Immunity NIH T32 Training Program

Assistant Professor: Pediatrics
Tropical Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States

Education

BS from North Central College: 06/2012 - Naperville, Illinois, United States; Biology

PhD from Medical College of Wisconsin: 05/2018 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

Postdoctoral Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine: Houston, Texas, United States

Professional Interests

Tick-borne diseases
Tick-borne relapsing fever
Lyme disease

Selected Publications

Clay D. Jackson-Litteken#, Michael W. Curtis# Brittany A. Armstrong, Aparna Krishnavajhala, Serhii Filatov, Jon S. Blevins, Job E. Lopez. " Characterization of the arthropod associated lipoprotein (Alp) in the tick-mammalian transmission cycle of Borrelia turicatae. " Ticks Tick Borne Dis. ; In Press
Michael W. Curtis†, Christa H. Fierros†, Beth L. Hahn, Matthew C. Surdel, Julie Kessler, Phillip N. Anderson, Marine Vandewalle-Capo, Mari Bonde, Jieqing Zhu, Sven Bergström, and Jenifer Coburn. " Identification of amino acid domains of Borrelia burgdorferi P66 that are surface exposed and important for localization, oligomerization, and porin function of the protein " Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Sep 23;
Michael W Curtis, Aparna Krishnavajhala, Alexander R Kneubehl, Monica E Embers, Jenna R Gettings, Michael J Yabsley, Job E Lopez. " Characterization of Immunological Responses to Borrelia Immunogenic Protein A (BipA), a Species-Specific Antigen for North American Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever " Microbiol Spectr. 2022 Jun 29; 10 (3) : e0172221.
Pubmed PMID: 35579456.
Michael W. Curtis, Beth L. Hahn, Kai Zhang, Chunhao Li, Richard T. Robinson, Jenifer Coburn. " Characterization of Stress and Innate Immunity Resistance of Wild-Type and deltap66 Borrelia burgdorferi. " Infection and Immunity. 2018 Feb ; 86 (2)
Pubmed PMID: 29158430.
Monica E. Embers, Aparna Krishnavajhala, Brittany A. Armstrong, Michael W. Curtis, Bapi Pahar, Hannah K. Wilder, Michael S. Allen, Paul A. Beare, Nicole R. Hasenkampf, Job E. Lopez. " Immunological Responses to the Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia turicatae in Infected Rhesus Macaques: Implications for Pathogenesis and Diagnosis. " Infection and Immunity. 2019 Apr ; 87 (4)
Pubmed PMID: 30642902.
Laura C. Ristow, Mari Bonde, Yi‐Pin Lin, Hiromi Sato, Michael Curtis, Erin Wesley, Beth L. Hahn, Juan Fang, David A. Wilcox, John M. Leong, Sven Bergström, and Jenifer Coburn. " Integrin binding by Borrelia burgdorferi P66 facilitates dissemination but is not required for infectivity " Cellular Microbiology. 2015 Jul ; 17 (7)
Pubmed PMID: 25604835.
Beth L. Hahn, Lavinia J. Padmore, Laura C. Ristow, Michael W. Curtis, and Jenifer Coburn. " Live Attenuated Borrelia burgdorferi Targeted Mutants in an Infectious Strain Background Protect Mice from Challenge Infection " Clinical and Vaccine Immunology. 2016 Aug ; 23 (8)
Pubmed PMID: 27335385.
Lisa Ellis, Michael W Curtis, Sarah M Gunter, Job E Lopez. " Relapsing Fever Infection Manifesting as Aseptic Meningitis, Texas, USA " Emerg Infect Dis. 2021 Oct ; 27 (10) : 2681-2685.
Pubmed PMID: 34546167.

Memberships

American Society for Microbiology