Amanda Brinkworth, PhD

Assistant Professor, UNMC Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Send Email

Brinkworth Lab

Amanda Brinkworth, PhD, is an assistant professor in the UNMC Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. Her research focuses on identifying mechanisms of survival and pathogenesis of bacterial pathogens. Her overarching research goal is to determine molecular changes that occur at the host-pathogen interface that can be therapeutically targeted to prevent colonization, dissemination, and disease associated with human bacterial infections. Recent work with collaborator and mentor Dr. Rey Carabeo at UNMC determines how the sexually transmitted bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis is able to infect and survive in the nutrient-depleted differentiated layers of the ectocervical epithelium. This 3D-organotypic in vitro ectocervical model is based on an established in vitro skin model that utilizes fibroblasts and keratinocytes to stratify on a collagen matrix.

Working with an in vitro skin model prompted Dr. Brinkworth to revisit previous postdoctoral work on B. burgdorferi transmission with Dr. D. Scott Samuels at the University of Montana, where she was extensively trained in tick maintenance and mimicking the tick-rodent enzootic cycle. Taken together, her research training has uniquely positioned her to begin an exciting new independent project to investigate early B. burgdorferi infection of human skin following a tick bite.

Within our newly established vector biology research laboratory, with Dr. Sujata Chaudhari, Dr. Brinkworth has begun adapting the skin model by altering dermal layer thickness and introducing human blood under the rafts.