Professional Links
I am an ecologist who uses a combination of field research and molecular techniques to study ecological and microbiological factors that influence how Lyme disease risk varies across forested ecosystems in Vermont. My research is carried out in collaboration with students at Vermont State University. If you are interested in getting involved or would like to learn more send me a message!
Ecological drivers of Lyme disease risk
Invasive plant species: Vermont consistently reports one of the highest per capita rates of Lyme disease in Vermont, however landowners have few options for reducing their risk of acquiring tick-borne diseases. I am actively researching whether vegetation management may offer landowners a new tool in their efforts to reduce their disease risk. I am collaborating with researchers across New England to 1) characterize the composition of understory plant communities in relation to black-legged tick populations and 2) determine if invasive plant species removal can reduce tick densities to levels that reduce the risk of tick-borne diseases.
Tick feeding behavior: Ticks are blood suckers who become engorged during prolonged feeding on an animal host. As generalist feeders, ticks feed on almost anything with a backbone! After feeding, the blood meal is digested, the tick molts into a new life stage and then the tick usually remains dormant in the soil for many months. When they emerge to find their next blood meal, small amounts of DNA may remain from their prior blood host. I am working to develop new molecular tools for detecting these small quantities of DNA in order to better understand their feeding behavior, information which may aid in predicting and potentially managing disease risk.
CRISPR-Cas12a detection of tick-borne pathogens
Lyme Borreliosis (“Lyme Disease”) affects about 500,000 people annually in the United States. The illness is caused by a spirochete bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi. The Outer Surface Protein C (OspC) of B. burgdorferi plays a role in transmission of the pathogen from tick to host, and in establishing an infection. The gene that codes for OspC is highly variable, with at least 16 variants present in my study region in south western Vermont. Among these variants, there are five groups believed to be responsible for the most severe cases of Lyme disease. However, this conclusion has not been rigorously tested, in part because current methods of OspC variant testing are difficult to implement. I am developing an assay for the detection of OspC variants in blacklegged ticks. This assay is based upon CRISPR/Cas12a DNA detection, which is highly specific and can be performed without advanced equipment or technical expertise. Our long-term goal is to use the CRISPR/Cas12a assay to identify spatiotemporal patterns in the number and abundance of variants in nature and to more rigorously test the hypothesis that certain OspC variants are responsible for severe cases of Lyme disease.
Soil Ecology
In graduate school I pursued a PhD in soil ecology, using a combination of field, biochemical and molecular techniques to better understand how soil organisms affect the production of plant-available forms of nitrogen (i.e. ammonium and nitrate). I am fascinated by the enormous bacterial diversity in soil (i.e. the soil microbiome), and have studied how these communities change over time and space. More recently, I have begun to study the impact of invasive jumping worms on the soil nitrogen cycle. My laboratory is presently refining a new soil test analyzing soil ammonium and nitrate. We can then use this approach to measure the impact of jumping worms on soil. In addition, I am interested in how jumping worms may impact blacklegged ticks, since each of these species occupies similar locations in the soil profile and are active at similar times of the year.
