{"id":62,"date":"2016-07-07T13:21:49","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T17:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/?page_id=62"},"modified":"2021-01-06T12:38:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T17:38:35","slug":"research-interests","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/research-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"Tick-Pathogen Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">Utilizes the One-Health approach to tick-borne diseases<\/span><\/p>\n<p>OVERVIEW<\/p>\n<p>The major areas of my research in progress are evaluation of the pathogens present in ticks found in VA and the tick innate immune response. This work stems from our on-going tick and pathogen surveillance studies, now in their 8th year of data collection.\u00a0 My initial interests in tick borne pathogens was in the antibacterial peptides produced by the tick in response to microbial challenge, but in recent years my work has focused on the disease pathogens found in this area of the country; a unique mixing bowl of ticks from the north and the south being found in the same locations. My lab in particular has been responsible for the molecular work conducted in our tick surveillance project here at ODU. In addition to studies on prevalence of <em>Borrelia<\/em> spp. we are also interested in mechanisms of transmission of <em>R. parkeri<\/em> in its natural host, <em>A. maculatum<\/em> a recent import to Virginia, as well as transmission to and from another tick species found in the same locations, namely <em>A. americanum<\/em> and <em>Dermacentor variabilis<\/em>. We are also interested in the innate immune system of the hard ticks, in particular <em>Amblyomma maculatum<\/em>, <em>Dermacentor variabilis<\/em> and <em>Ixodes scapularis<\/em> by defining the gene, tissue of production and regulation of the defensins; in addition we are looking for addition antimicrobial agents associated with the innate immune response and how the system is regulated.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What pathogens are present?\n<ul>\n<li>Molecular identification of various pathogens\n<ul>\n<li><i>Rickettsia<\/i> spp.<\/li>\n<li><i>Borrelia<\/i> spp.<\/li>\n<li><i>Babesia<\/i> spp.<\/li>\n<li><i>Ehrlichia<\/i> spp. \/ <i>Anaplasma<\/i> spp.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What does this mean to human and animal health?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">Tick immunity<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why does a tick not get sick when infected?<\/li>\n<li>What triggers tick immune response?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">What happens to tick microbiome when infected with <i>Rickettsia<\/i> sp.?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">How are <em>Rickettsia<\/em> spp. transmitted transovarially?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Utilizes the One-Health approach to tick-borne diseases OVERVIEW The major areas of my research in progress are evaluation of the pathogens present in ticks found in VA and the tick innate immune response. This work stems from our on-going tick &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/research-interests\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/whynes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}