The Tick Clique
Back for a second summer in our lab is Yahya (left). Moving on from his work testing natural tick repellents last year, he joined Hannah to aid in the native fungal species research.
New to our lab this past summer was UNB's Hannah (top right), who spent her time looking into native fungal species that are pathogenic to ticks and can be used to reduce the occupancy of ticks in residential areas.
Our tick wrangler-in-chief, Alexandra (bottom right), came back to work in the lab in partnership with Geneticks after completing her MSc at Mount Allison. Alexandra has recently left us to work on her PhD in Saskatchewan, passing the microscope to Julie Lewis (pictured below) to continue the work for both Geneticks and the odds and ends of projects in the Lloyd Lab.
Chris Roy (not pictured) is making transgenic ticks to see if we can make ticks that can’t transmit the Lyme disease bacteria.
Naaman Omar (not pictured) recently completed a study of East African Ticks.
Epigenetics
Dr. Vett Lloyd (left) has been working on epigenetics for more decades than she chooses to say.
Julie Lewis (top right) has been working hard on the effect of other tick-vectored co-infections in human cells.
Anne Berthold (bottom right) is looking at epigenetic changes and energy production in human cells infected with Borrelia.
Health
Through the Mount Allison University Summer Internship Program, Keeley (left) is working as a Health Intern for a research project, focusing on colorectal cancer. This is a joint research project with Professor Vett Lloyd of Mount Allison University and Dr. Gurpreet Singh-Ranger, Chief of the Department of Surgery, at the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville, New Brunswick.
Another returning student to the Lloyd Lab is Kiana (top right) who started working on the Lymescape project in the summer of 2019 and is continued this past summer focusing on expanding the survey database.
Our recently added honours student, Sydney (bottom right), is looking into the effect of Borrelia burgdorferi infection on the activation of oncogenic pathways in human tissue.
Animals
Recently completed is the canine seroprevalence study in New Brunswick and PEI, Canada, with the assistance of veterinarians and the public.
Samantha (right) started looking for Leptospira spp. and Borrelia bissettii in New Brunswick wildlife in the summer of 2019 as part of her MSc at Mount Allison.
All content copyright, images and data by Dr. Vett K. Lloyd and Mount Allison University
