Leticia Lázaro, PhD from the University of Navarra, has investigated the functioning of the central carbon metabolism of Brucella bacteria, with the goal to contribute to the search for safer and more effective vaccines against brucellosis.

Brucellosis is a zoonosis that affects mammalian animals-especially livestock-causing "great economic losses. It is also transmitted from animals to humans, causing a "chronic and incapacitating disease, with a long and costly treatment," adds Lázaro.

Brucellosis - also known as Malta fever - is suffered by thousands of people around the world, especially in the most disadvantaged countries, and for the time being there are no efficient and safe vaccines.

Leticia Lázaro has described in her doctoral thesis the different metabolic pathways used by Brucella bacteria and has proposed mutants in different proteins to block their function. "We have clarified the pathways through which the catabolism of 5- and 6-carbon sugars is carried out and the pathways through which glucose is produced from simple 3- and 4-carbon substrates," she explains.

Progress in the research of this scientific branch is important to develop animal vaccines and prevent thousands of people from becoming infected with this disease every year. "By knowing the metabolic pathways employed by this bacterium we can block them, preventing such active replication in the host and thus develop safer vaccines," adds Dr. Lazaro.