Dr. Natalie Rudenko (Natasha) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She earned her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Genetics from the University of South Bohemia (USB) and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR) in 2002. Her pre-doctoral professional training was at the University of California, Los Angeles (CA, USA), the State University of New York at Stony Brook (NY, USA), and Brookhaven National Laboratory (NY, USA). She later completed postdoctoral training at Georgia Southern University, the US National Tick Collection, and further professional training at the James H. Oliver Jr. Institute for Coastal Plain Sciences in Statesboro (GA, USA). Of her forty-six years of experience in molecular biology, microbiology, virology, and parasitology, Dr. Rudenko has devoted over 33 years to studying the ecological, epidemiological, and molecular aspects of the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis – spirochetes from the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex – the disease itself, tick immune proteins, the impact of arthropod vectors on the distribution of zoonotic diseases, tick-pathogen interactions, and the ways tick-borne pathogens endanger public health. Recently, Dr. Rudenko's main research has focused on persistent forms of Lyme borreliosis spirochetes, vector-free routes of transmission in general, and congenital transmission of LB spirochetes, in particular. She is a member of European Cooperation in Science and Technology, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), the European Study Group for Lyme Borreliosis (ESGBOR), and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).