Yi-Pin Lin Lab@TuftsVet
yiplin.bsky.social
Yi-Pin Lin Lab@TuftsVet
@yiplin.bsky.social
A Biologist, Professor, Taiwanese American, and Backpacking Traveler always in adventurous trips 🇺🇸 🇹🇼
Koala. 🐨 Aww….

Whole complement conference of people (200 people) are waiting to pet koala ($100 to pet for 10 seconds 🤣) glad this is included in the conference registration fee.
September 18, 2025 at 2:06 AM
My second time in International Complement Workshop. So happy to meet my Danish collaborator and friend, Gregers Andersen!

my Swedish collaborator, Anna Blom (thank you for the the tick anti-complement OmCI)

and Meiqing Shi, George Chaconas’s former postdoc (current professor in Univ Maryland)!
September 17, 2025 at 1:34 AM
After traveling thru N. America (Chicago), Europe (Istanbul), Egypt (Cairo), Shanghai (Asia), finally I’m in Brisbane, Australia! Excited to meet old friends and new colleagues talking about tick and Lyme bacteria anti-complement proteins in International Complement Workshop (ICW).
September 15, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Tick meeting is done, now I’m traveling to Australia for international complement conference (ICW). First stop, Istanbul, Turkey! Before that, absolutely enjoy some vodka cocktail in the lounge at Chicago airport!
September 10, 2025 at 12:03 AM
I gave a talk for the story of our CspZ Lyme disease vaccines. I enjoy this tick-Lyme conference for meeting old and new friends

I met people in the pic when we all were trainee. We now all have our own lab and field of expertise in different university!
September 9, 2025 at 9:51 PM
I’m in Chicago! Welcome to International Conference of Lyme disease and other tickborne diseases (ICLB)!
September 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
My September business + personal trip starts! The first stop: Chicago for ICLB conference (international conferences of Lyme Borreliosis)
September 8, 2025 at 9:27 AM
The tradition of any friends visiting me and going with me to Boston is to have lobster! Of course Ai my collaborator and friend would need a lobster 🦞
September 6, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Autumn is the bird banding season because of the migration. Working on ticks,birds, Lyme again!

My collaborator Ai Takano and I visited our local bird banding station. Met so many enthusiastic volunteers bird banders!
September 6, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Today is also our research day at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Thanks for my DVM students, Renner Thomas and Audrey Ponder (Very interesting work of wild birds), and PhD student, Sergio Hernandez giving great talks. So proud that Sergio got the best poster award!
September 5, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Remember I went to Japan to collect ticks this May? So happy to host my collaborator, Ai Takano, from Yamaguchi Univ. at Japan to to talk about her work on tickborne pathogenss, wildlife animals, and Lyme disease in Japan. IImpressed on >200 people attending her talk! Very relevant talk!
September 5, 2025 at 7:01 PM
My postdoc boss, John Leong, invited me to give a talk at Tufts Medical School yesterday. Very happy to see many old and new friends/colleagues as well as my drinking picture still on the refrigerator in the lab. I have no idea but I look nice and young 🤣
September 5, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Complement kills Lyme disease bacteria, but bacteria evolve to produce anti-complement proteins to escape killing. Our work @jimmunol.bsky.social turned such escaping to a killing strategy as a Pre-exposure prophylaxis, which can a hope for people refusing vaccines to handle LD.
shorturl.at/BagpT
Complement therapeutic factor H-IgG proteins as pre-exposure prophylaxes against Lyme borreliae infections
Abstract. Lyme disease (LD) is the most common vector-borne disease in the northern hemisphere and is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lat
shorturl.at
August 24, 2025 at 9:23 AM
We then have to be very careful to collect samples (blood) and take out the ticks. Some birds (like Veery) really had loads of the ticks.

Let’s culture the Lyme bacteria from ticks and see what genotypes we got!
June 5, 2025 at 10:32 PM
The first step of trapping the birds is to identify the sites that is at the edge of the wood so you’ll have lots of birds passing by.

Setting up the net absolutely needs some efforts. Check on my DVM student, Audrey, working very hard to set up the net
June 5, 2025 at 10:31 PM
The most challenging work of mist netting is to take the birds from entangled net while the birds are screaming. Here are examples of woodpeckers and catbirds. My DVM student, Renner, worked very hard to take out the birds from the net. That’s his first time!
June 5, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Come to join my technician, Miranda, and the summer DVM students, Renner and Audrey. We are going to the field to trap birds in understanding wild birds’ role in tickborne diseases/Lyme disease!

Special thanks for Alan Dupuis, my colleague/friend at Wadsworth visiting and training us!
June 5, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Although Ixodes persulcatus tick is the major tick species transmitting human Lyme infectious bacteria in northern Asia, the other tick species can also transmit those human important Lyme bacteria. That is “Ixodes pavlovski “ take a look to see how we can differentiate them.
May 21, 2025 at 1:00 PM
In Hokkaido, there’re three major tick species that can be collected via dragging (Ixodes persulcatus, Ixodes ovatus, and Haemaphysalis spp). I. Persulcatus transmits Lyme disease bacteria in northern Asia. are focusing on this tick but differentiating tick species is not easy
May 21, 2025 at 12:58 PM
We’re Traveling to Nemuro, Hokkaido to collect ticks. This site is also a bird banding station as it is on the fall migration route of wild birds. We met local bird bander setting up the mist net, saw the endangered red crown crane, learned banders study the bird migration route
May 21, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Many eagle species here in Kushiro wildlife conservation center are endangered and specific to Japan including White-tailed eagles and Blakiston Fish Owls. Scientists and DVMs here also search for their nests, sample/band the birds to monitor their health and also track their migration.
May 20, 2025 at 11:41 AM
At Kushiro, Japan visiting Dr. Saito, the lead scientist in Kushiro Marsh Wildlife Conservation Center. They specialise in rehabilitation of endangered eagles and owls. Many DVMs here treated wildlife animals, put reporters to prepare their release.
May 20, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Field season starts so I’m heading to Sapporo (Hokkaido) at Japan to collect the Asian Ixodes ticks carrying Lyme disease bacteria! Good luck to get many ticks!
May 19, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Thanks for #TuftsUnivesrity sharing our story with @mebottazzi.bsky.social, WenHsiang Chen, Kalvis Brangulis, Chinglin Hsieh to turn a bacterial protein that people gave up hope into a very powerful Lyme disease vaccine candidate! shorturl.at/nESG5
@bcmhouston.bsky.social @tuftsvet.bsky.social
Alternative Approach to Lyme Disease Vaccine Development Shows Promise in Pre-clinical Models
Research team finds genetic engineered Lyme bacterial proteins could offer long-standing protection against infection while requiring fewer vaccinations.
shorturl.at
April 9, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Excited to share our work published today @naturecomms.bsky.social with Kalvis Brangulis, @bcmhouston.bsky.social (@mebottazzi.bsky.social, Wen-Hsiang Chen), Ching-Lin Hsieh, & Utpal Pal. We applied structural-based design to approach the challenges of Lyme disease vaccines.
shorturl.at/8Gvh4
Mechanistic insights into the structure-based design of a CspZ-targeting Lyme disease vaccine - Nature Communications
The outer surface protein CspZ is a potential vaccine candidate of Borrelia burgdorferi for Lyme disease prevention. Here, using structure-based design, the authors generate a mutant CspZ protein with...
shorturl.at
April 7, 2025 at 1:41 PM