Pakeeza and Ogadinma just published a paper in the Journal of Lipid Research. The paper shows that if arachidonic acid (AA) is injected into the fly, it stimulates production of twenty-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), also known as eicosanoids. They also showed that both linoleic acid (LA) and AA stimulate the fly immune response when D. melanogaster is exposed to a heat-killed bacterial pathogen. This work identifies PUFAs that are involved in insect immunity and adds evidence to the notion that Drosophila utilizes immunostimulatory lipid signaling to mitigate bacterial infections.
Tag: Ogadinma Okakpu
Ogadinma Graduates!!
Congratulations to Ogadinma Okakpu, who recently received his PhD in Biomedical Sciences. He begins his new position at TRAQ in Carlsbad, CA in July doing ELISA assay development. 
sPLA2 from S. carpocapsae modulates insect immunity
Sophia and Ogadinma led a research project which was just published illustrating that a secreted phospholipase A2 enzyme released from S. carpocapsae modulates insect immunity. The paper also included other members of the lab. This is the third individual protein from S. carpocapsae that we have shown to have immunogenic properties in insects.
