The Tick Clique
Recently added scientist, Emma (left), is a third year student at MtA researching the prevalence of Bartonella spp. within New Brunswick and Nova Scotia during her time as an Independent Studies Student (Winter term, 2021). The bartonella pathogen is hypothesized to be increasing locally due to tick host migration caused by climate change. Although the common name, Cat Scratch disease, alludes to the pathogen only affecting cats, the negative effects are often experienced by other mammals (including dogs and humans).
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 (top right) 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 (pictured above) 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.
Joining the lab back in the summer of 2019, Samantha (right) begun her research as a MSc student at Mount Allison to determine the incidence rate of Leptospira spp. and Borrelia bissettii in New Brunswick wildlife.
Juan David (left) is an exchange MSc student who has joined the lab through an international partnership between Dr. Lloyd's lab and Universidad de Caldas, Colombia. He is also the recipient of the ELAP scholarship. His recent research has included the discovery of a novel Borrelia species in argasides found in the department of Arauca (Colombian Orinoquia) and is trying to describe it genetically with the help of the Dr. Lloyd lab.
All content copyright, images and data by Dr. Vett K. Lloyd and Mount Allison University
