A Spider is on the hunt for troublesome ticks
RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Summer heralds the unwelcome return of ticks and the diseases they spread. Thankfully senior Maya Allione is on the case.
Allione is spending part of her summer in the downtown Richmond tick surveillance unit helping to determine the number of ticks that will appear in Virginia to better understand the diseases they carry. The prevalence of different ticks can vary year to year, Allione said, and knowing which ones are lurking in tall grass or the woods can help predict the diseases that will appear in people. For example, blacklegged ticks spread Lyme disease, and Alpha-gal syndrome is predominantly associated with lone star ticks.
"Right now, the CDC is still very interested in Lyme," Allione said. "And one that's becoming very concerning to people is Alpha-gal, which makes you allergic to red meats."
The researchers seek out a tick-rich environment, not knowing what they'll find.
"That's part of the fun of it," said Allione, a biology major and Latin American, Latino, & Iberian studies minor. "You don't know if you're going to get a tick. Often, we go places where someone says, `Hey, on my farm, we seem to have a lot of ticks,’ which is perfect."
Allione and other researchers head out with a 1-meter square sheet they drag along, taking about 15 steps. They pin the sheet to a tree, quickly snatch the ticks with tweezers, and put them in a jar of alcohol. Right now, it's too warm to find many ticks, which hide in the leaf litter to avoid the heat. But in May, she said, they often collect hundreds when the ticks first emerge.
They bring the ticks into the lab, where Allione puts them under a microscope to identify their type. They're then sent to another facility for disease analysis.
The pre-med student was drawn to the research to gain practical medical-related research in a way that could provide health benefits to people. She previously conducted research in biology professor Jory Brinkerhoff's lab to help determine which natural oils might best prevent ticks from adhering to a person or animal. (Growing rosemary can help, she noted, or applying eucalyptus oil, for example, to a pet.)
She saw a job posting from the health department, posted by a UR alum who had worked in Brinkerhoff's lab. She discussed it with the professor who thought it was a good opportunity to advance her research.
"He's a good mentor," she said of Brinkerhoff. "He's open to any idea as long as it's not too outlandish. He'll say, 'You know what? Let's try it.' That's a great asset to have in a professor. All of us are doing very different things, and he supports each one of us."