The Tick Cell Biobank - a UK and international biological resource

蜱是一种吸血节肢动物，它们不仅对宿主造成直接伤害，还传播牲畜、伴侣动物和人类的许多疾病。这些由病毒、细菌、原生动物和丝虫病引起的疾病的预防和治疗研究，很大程度上得益于使用细胞培养系统来研究蜱虫细胞的功能，以及它们如何以及为什么传播致病病原体。这种被称为细胞系的培养系统已经为许多携带疾病的蜱虫开发出来，但它们需要特殊的技能、大量的时间和耐心来建立和维护。七年前，蜱虫细胞生物库（TCB）建立了一个中央收集库，用于收集现在和将来可用的所有蜱虫细胞系。TCB应要求向世界各地的研究科学家分发蜱虫细胞系（TCL），并提供必要的维护培训。TCB还开展了TCL的特征研究，因为对它们中的大多数知之甚少，并且正在从收集中尚未代表的蜱种中创建新的细胞系。该提案要求提供资金，以确保TCB作为英国和国际蜱虫和蜱传疾病研究的重要资源的长期未来，扩大资源，包括来自其他重要节肢动物的细胞系，如咬蚊、螨虫和蜜蜂，并通过表征、克隆和基因组测序为细胞系提供附加价值。从而确保这些独特和宝贵的生物资源继续提供给需要在生物医学、兽医和农业研究中使用它们的科学家。自2009年TCB成立以来，TCL在蜱虫及其传播疾病的研究中发挥的关键作用越来越清楚。事实上，对TCL及其产生方法的兴趣已经扩展到包括螨虫、跳蚤和虱子等其他节肢动物传播的病原体。随着环境和气候变化推动新的媒介传播疾病的出现，对蜱虫和其他节肢动物衍生的细胞系的需求可能在未来继续增加。该提议包括从蜱虫、螨虫和昆虫（如沙蝇和蠓）中产生新的细胞系，并通过向实验室中专门研究这些节肢动物的科学家传播所需的专业知识。TCL的建立需要多年的时间，需要专业的专业知识，极大的耐心，重要的是，有稳定的实验室支持背景。TCB将世界上几乎所有可用的TCL汇集到一个存储库和一个联络点中，以提供TCL并进行维护培训（这对于成功地将TCL转移到接收实验室至关重要）。在过去的7年里，TCB取得了巨大的成功，产生了18个新的TCL，向71个受赠实验室提供TCL，并培训了来自欧洲、亚洲、非洲、北美和南美27个国家的80名青年科学家。该建议包括一个工作包，具体目的是通过在马来西亚、肯尼亚和巴西建立TCB前哨站，在中低收入国家提高TCL和培训的知名度，并改善获得TCL和培训的机会。来自TCB的TCL已经促进了广泛的研究，但仍有许多工作要做。英国和全球对这些具有重要经济意义和生物学意义的寄生虫、它们的微生物群和它们传播的病原体的研究只触及了皮毛。继续维护和扩大以TCB为代表的独特资源，包括TCL的基因组和分子特征以及新的节肢动物细胞系的产生，对于支持现在和未来许多年的这项研究至关重要。

Ticks are bloodfeeding arthropods which, as well as causing direct damage to their hosts, transmit many diseases of livestock, companion animals and humans. Research into prevention and cure of these diseases, caused by viruses, bacteria, protozoa and filarial worms, is greatly assisted by the use of cell culture systems to study both how tick cells function, and how and why they transmit disease-causing pathogens. Such culture systems, called cell lines, have been developed for many disease-carrying ticks, but they require special skills and much time and patience to establish and maintain. Seven years ago a central collection, the Tick Cell Biobank (TCB), was created for all the tick cell lines available now and in future. The TCB distributes tick cell lines (TCL) on request to research scientists all over the world and provides essential training in their maintenance. The TCB also carries out characterisation studies on TCL, as very little is known about most of them, and is creating new cell lines from species of ticks not already represented in the collection. This proposal requests funding to secure the long-term future of the TCB as an essential resource underpinning UK and international tick and tick-borne disease research, to expand the resource to include cell lines derived from other important arthropods such as biting midges, mites and honeybees, and to give added value to the cell lines through characterisation, cloning and genome sequencing, thereby ensuring that these unique and invaluable biological resources continue to be available to the scientists who need to use them in biomedical, veterinary and agricultural research. Since the TCB was established in 2009, the crucial role played by TCL in research into ticks and the diseases they transmit has become increasingly clear. Indeed, interest in TCL and the methods used to generate them has spread to encompass pathogens transmitted by other arthropods such as mites, fleas and lice. With environmental and climate change driving the emergence of new vector-borne diseases, the demand for cell lines derived from ticks and other arthropods is likely to continue to increase in the future. This proposal includes generation of novel cell lines from ticks, mites and insects such as sand flies and midges both in-house and through dissemination of the required expertise to scientists in laboratories specialising in these arthropods. Establishment of TCL takes many years and requires specialised expertise, much patience and, importantly, a stable background of laboratory support. The TCB has brought together almost all the TCL available worldwide into a single repository and point of contact for supply of TCL and training in their maintenance (essential for successful transfer of TCL to recipient laboratories). The TCB has been enormously successful over the past 7 years, generating 18 new TCL, supplying TCL to 71 recipient laboratories and training 80 young scientists representing 27 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America. This proposal includes a workpackage specifically aimed at raising the profile of, and improving access to, TCL and training in lower and middle-income countries, by establishing outposts of the TCB in Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil.TCL from the TCB have already facilitated a wide range of studies, but much remains to be done. UK and global research has only scratched the surface of knowledge of these economically important and biologically fascinating parasites, their microbiota and the pathogens they transmit. Continued maintenance and expansion of the unique resource represented by the TCB, including genomic and molecular characterisation of TCL and generation of new arthropod cell lines, is essential to support this research now and for many years to come.