Recent lab happenings
June 1, 2021 - Congratulations to Master's student, Grace Shaw for receiving both a BioLuminaries award and a CDC PacVec training grant to study habitat connectivity impacts on the distribution and risk of tick-borne pathogens, Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia miyamotoi, and Rickettsia tillamookensis.
April 29, 2021 - New Swei lab pre-print publication on the effects of host blood meal on tick vector competency is out on BioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.28.441694v1
February 16, 2021 - New Swei Lab publication is out in Oecologia! Former Master's student Jordan Salomon, now a PhD student at Texas A&M, leads this featured student paper that examined how host community composition and other biotic factors influence tick burdens on key reservoir hosts. Read it here: ​https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00442-021-04851-9
February 12, 2021 - KQED Deep Look published a 'Meet a Scientist' profile of their experience working with members of the Swei lab to produce their popular tick bite video! ​https://www.patreon.com/posts/47461842
February 9, 2021 - Andrea Swei was quoted in a Science Magazine article on a recent Lyme disease study on the geographic and biological drivers of disease incidence on the East Coast. ​https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/lizards-may-be-protecting-people-lyme-disease-southeastern-united-states
June 18, 2019 - Andrea Swei is interviewed by Alie Ward of the Ologies podcast about ticks and Lyme disease ecology. Podcast here: ​https://www.alieward.com/ologies/diseaseecology
KQED Deep Look visited the Swei Lab to understand how a tick bite works. Check out the video below.
Ixodes pacificus nymphal ticks are the primary vector of Lyme disease in western North America. This EM image shows the piercing mouthparts that this tick uses to attach and feed on its hosts. 
This western fence lizard is being checked for for juvenile ticks to better understand the role of habitat fragmentation on tick burdens and disease transmission in Californian habitats. 
These black tailed deer came to investigate our wildlife cameras. Motion sensor cameras across a habitat fragmentation gradient document species richness and relative abundance.