Scabies

Laboratory Head   

Dr Katja Fischer

Summary

Work in this laboratory concentrates on the control of diseases caused by the scabies mites, Sarcoptes scabiei which burrow under the skin to cause the condition commonly known as scabies.

The laboratory has constructed a library of expressed S. scabiei sequences from mites obtained from skin shed into the bedding of patients with the severe form of the disease, crusted scabies.  A multi-gene family was identified during this sequencing in which the amino acids necessary for catalysis are mutated and therefore cannot function as active proteases.

Conditions researched

• Scabies (S. scabiei)

Associated diseases: Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease as well as high rates of renal disease caused by group A streptococcus (GAS) have been clearly linked to scabies infestations which are a major driving force of streptococcal pyoderma in children of Indigenous communities.

Current research

• Genes for SMIPP-Ss amplified in the scabies mite genome to overcome host defence strategies
• The mechanism which protects the scabies mite from complement-mediated gut damage
• Inhibition of host defences in mite burrows utilised by bacterial pathogens such as GAS

Staff

Laboratory Head: Dr Katja Fischer

Senior Scientific Advisor: Professor David Kemp

Postdoctoral staff: Dr Angela Mika; Dr Masego Johnstone

Research Assistants: Darren Pickering; Priscilla GohShiMin; Yonghong Zhou

PhD student: Simone Reynolds

Visiting student: Alice Laforge

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following funding agencies:

• National Health and Medical Research Council

Collaborators

Associate Professor Rob Pike, Monash University, Melbourne

Dr Ashley Buckle, Monash University, Melbourne

Professor Bart Currie, Dr Deborah Holt and Dr Shelley Walton, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, NT

Professor Anna Blom, Lund University in Malmö, Sweden