Richard G. Titus
Professor

Phone: 491-4964
Fax: 491-0603
Email: Richard.Titus@colostate.edu
Office: 325 Pathology Building
Lab: 321 Pathology Building

Degrees

BS, Northern Arizona University, 1972
MS, University of Washington, 1976
PhD, University of Washington, 1978

Research Interests

The laboratory of Dr. Titus studies the immune response to pathogens (e.g., Leishmania) transmitted by arthropods and the immunosuppressive effects of the saliva of arthropods. These immunomodulatory salivary molecules can shift the immune response to a non-protective type 2 (Th2) response. Therefore, we are interested in developing vaccines (both protein and DNA-based) against salivary proteins in an attempt to block the action of these proteins when insects bite and thus to prevent infection with Leishmania and other insect-borne diseases.

Selected Publications

Pub Med for Titus RG.

Beak-San Choi, Pascale Kropf, Son Nguyen, Markus Munder, Ingrid Muller, Manuel Modolell, Matthew Rogers, Robert Ryan, Richard Titus. 2009. Arginase activity regulates local immune responses in leishmaniasis. PLoS Neglected Trop Dis. 3:e480.

William H. Wheat, Kristen E. Pauken, Robin V. Morris, Richard G. Titus. 2008. Lutzomyia longipalpis salivary peptide maxadilan alters murine dendritic cell expression of CD80/86, CCR7 and cytokine secretion and reprograms dendritic cell-mediated cytokine release from cultures containing allogenenic T cells. J. Immunol. 180:8286-8298.

Tess M. Brodie, Matthew C. Smith, Robin V. Morris, Richard G. Titus. 2007. Immunomodulatory effects of the Lutzomyia longipalpis salivary gland protein maxadilan on mouse macrophages. Infect. Immun. 75: 2359-2365.

J. Santiago Mejia, Jeanette V. Bishop, Richard G. Titus. 2006. Is it possible to develop pan-arthropod vaccines? Trends in Parasitol. (invited submission). 22:367-370.

Richard G. Titus, Jeanette V. Bishop and J. Santiago Mejia. 2006. The immunomodulatory factors of arthropod saliva and the potential for these factors to serve as vaccine targets to prevent pathogen transmission. Parasite Immunol. 28:131-141.

Titus RG, Ribeiro JMC. 1988. Salivary gland lysates from the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis enhance Leishmania infectivity. Science. 239:1306-1308.