Rupinder (Rim) Kaur

About Me

Dr. Rupinder Kaur earned her Ph.D. in 2017 from the University of Vienna, Austria, in collaboration with the Edmund Mach Foundation, Italy, and the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on understanding the intricate relationships between hosts and their microbial symbionts to advance vector control strategies. She began her postdoctoral training with Dr. Luis Teixeira in Lisbon, Portugal, studying the genetic basis of antiviral immunity in Drosophila melanogaster. In 2019, she joined Dr. Seth Bordenstein’s lab at Vanderbilt University, where she uncovered the cellular and molecular mechanism of Wolbachia-induced reproductive anomaly called cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). In 2022, she transitioned to an Assistant Research Professor role at Penn State University, where her work advanced the biochemical understanding of bacterial enzymes driving CI — a mechanism at the forefront of next-generation strategies for mosquito-borne disease control, making Dr. Kaur’s work highly relevant to public health applications.

In January 2026, Dr. Kaur will launch her independent laboratory at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her lab integrates cell and molecular biology, genetics, epigenetics, biochemistry, synthetic biology, advanced imaging such as super-resolution and light-sheet microscopy, and chromatin profiling approaches to explore how Wolbachia influences host reproduction, immunity, development, and behavior. Using Drosophila melanogaster and the mosquito Aedes aegypti as model systems, the lab seeks to uncover fundamental mechanistic principles of host-microbe interactions and translate these insights into innovative, sustainable strategies for vector control.

Research Directions

Wolbachia, maternally transmitted bacteria present in ~50% of arthropod species, primarily reside in reproductive tissues and manipulate host reproduction to favor its own transmission via infected females. The most common manipulation, CI, causes embryonic lethality when sperm from infected males fertilize uninfected eggs, while infected females rescue this lethality and pass the bacteria to offspring. Coupled with Wolbachia’s ability to block RNA viruses such as dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya, CI has become a cornerstone of vector control strategies. The World Health Organization has endorsed the public health value of future Wolbachia research to curb dengue, for example.

Genetic and Epigenetic Basis of Reproductive Manipulation

Since Wolbachia’s success in vector control programs heavily relies on CI, we pioneered in investigating how Wolbachia proteins interact with host reproductive and developmental pathways to control sperm development, fertilization outcome, and offspring viability. We showed that CI-inducing factors (CifA and CifB) invade developing sperm nuclei, deplete long non-coding RNAs, promote DNA damage, and disrupt the histone-to-protamine transition — an epigenetically regulated process critical for male fertility. Modified sperm lead to embryonic death due to fatal DNA replication errors during mitotic divisions. Infected females carrying CifA, however, rescue embryonic lethality via yet unknown changes made to maternal chromatin. Our lab will continue pulling at this thread to investigate:

• the epigenetic mechanism/s by which Wolbachia regulate host cellular machinery to shape the paternal genome inheritance and embryonic outcome.

• the nature of maternal chromatin modifications that either alter or completely nullify derived paternal chromatin changes to prevent embryonic lethality?

Mechanisms of Wolbachia-Virus Interactions

The lab will also investigate how Wolbachia blocks viral pathogens in mosquitoes, a transformative avenue for disease control. While multiple host and bacterial factors contribute to antiviral resistance, the role of prophage-encoded factors — often termed the “Warhead of Wolbachia” — remains largely unexplored. It is also unclear why some Wolbachia strains confer resistance to certain viruses while others do not, or why some viruses are suppressed and others are enhanced in the presence of Wolbachia, and how these different Wolbachia-virus combinations interact within the host cellular environment to shape these outcomes. Using transgenics, synthetic biology, high-throughput sequencing, and functional assays, the lab aims to decode the mechanisms by which Wolbachia suppress viruses and design customizable biocontrol tools that strengthen virus-blocking capabilities.

Selected Publications

(Complete list of publications on Google Scholar)

Kaur R#, Bordenstein SR#. Cytoplasmic incompatibility factor proteins from Wolbachia prophage are costly to sperm development in Drosophila melanogaster (2025). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.3016

• #Co-corresponding authors

Kaur R#, Meier JC, McGraw EA, Hillyer JF, Bordenstein SR#. Cell biological mechanism of a symbiotic drive system deployed in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes for arbovirus control (2024). PLoS Biology. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002573 #Co-corresponding authors

• Publication selected to appear in the PLOS Showcase

Kaur R#, McGarry A, Shropshire JD, Leigh B, Bordenstein SR#. Prophage proteins alter long non-coding RNA and DNA of developing sperm to induce a paternal-effect lethality (2024). Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.adk9469

• #Co-corresponding authors
• Research highlighted in Nature Reviews Microbiology
• Featured in 13 news outlets including Science Daily, EurekAlert!, Technology Networks, Phys.org, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Mirage News, Bioengineer, ScienMag, News Groove UK, Verve Times, News Continue, Swift Telecast, and Nouvelles du Monde, and Penn State departmental websites and press releases
• Featured in Phage Directory blogpost

Kaur R*, Leigh B*, Ritchie IT, Bordenstein SR. The Cif proteins from Wolbachia prophage WO modify sperm genome integrity to establish cytoplasmic incompatibility. PLoS Biology. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001584

• *Co-first authors
• Publication selected for commentary and highlighted on the PLoS Biology website banner

Kaur R#, Shropshire JD, Cross K, Leigh B, Mansueto A, Stewart V, Bordenstein S, Bordenstein SR#. Living in the endosymbiotic world of Wol­bachia: A centennial review (2021). Cell Host and Microbe. DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2021.03.006

• #Co-corresponding authors

Kaur R#, Martinez J, Rota-Stabelli O, Jiggins F, Miller WJ#. Age, tissue, genotype, and virus infection regulate Wolbachia levels in Drosophila (2020). Molecular Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/mec.15462

• #Co-corresponding authors

2017 Ph.D. Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
2010 M.Sc. Biotechnology (Honors), Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, India
2008 B.Sc. Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala, India