Project description:Bats are increasingly studied for their ability to coexist with diverse viruses of human health importance. While this focus has yielded insights into host–pathogen dynamics, baseline physiological data from healthy bats remain limited, constraining comparative and mechanistic understanding. Serum proteomics offers a direct window into circulating proteins that underpin immune regulation, cellular maintenance, and metabolism. Here, we characterize the serum proteome of healthy, captive Egyptian rousette bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus). Using untargeted proteomic profiling, we identified and ranked abundant proteins across major functional categories. This work provides the first-look of the Egyptian rousette bat serum proteome, providing a reference point for cross-species comparisons and future studies of bat immunity, metabolism, and longevity.
Project description:Dermal fibroblasts from megabat and microbat, stimulated with dsRNA (poly(I:C)) and controls. Bats can harbor some of the most deadliest viruses to humans while rarely displaying pathogenicity themselves. To study their innate immune response - the expression program that is initiated once a pathogen is senseds, we stimulated dermal fibroblast cells from two species (Rousettus aegyptiacus and Pipistrellus kuhlii) for four hours with dsRNA - a viral RNA mimic that triggers a rapid innate immune response. Subsequently, we profiled the response using bulk RNA-seq.
Project description:Dermal fibroblasts from bat and human, stimulated with dsRNA (poly(I:C)) and controls. Bats can harbor some of the most deadliest viruses to humans while rarely displaying pathogenicity themselves. To study the transcriptional divergence and cell-to-cell variability of their innate immune response - the expression program that is initiated once a pathogen is sensed, we stimulated dermal fibroblast cells from Rousettus aegyptiacus and from human for four hours with dsRNA - a viral RNA mimic that triggers a rapid innate immune response. Subsequently, we profiled the response using scRNA-seq.