Tick-borne diseases
Mentor: Adela Oliva Chavez
Mentee: Sydney Orsborn, Abagail Leal, Sarah Durski
Deadline: June 10, 2022
Description: Mainly focused on ticks and tick-borne diseases, we have several projects working on improving our understanding of the immune responses of animals to the tick bite and the transmission of pathogens. Although a lot of work has been done to define what happens systematically during sickness with pathogen causing disease in animals, little is known of the events that take place early at the skin level. We are also working towards developing anti-tick vaccines studying novel molecules known as extracellular vesicles. Lastly, we are investigating how epigenetics, a form of gene regulation, on the survival of ticks to winter, regulation of behavior, and adaptations during tick feeding.