Written by Steve Mosco, smosco@antonnews.com Tuesday, 17 June 2014 16:52

As Plainview Old-Bethpage High School senior Hannah Stewart prepares to ship off to Brandeis University in the fall, she, like most young adults here age, will remember the best parts of high school: spirit week, homecoming, prom and, of course, gathering lizards and ticks in northern New Jersey.

The science-minded senior recently worked under the auspices of Dr. Russell Burke, chair of the Biology Department at Hofstra University, in a research project with the goal of finding out why cases of Lyme Disease are so prevalent here in the north, but so rare down south.

This is a part of biology that Dr. Burke introduced me to that I never thought about, working with lizards and insects, said Stewart. It was far more interesting than I ever thought it could be.

For her efforts with Burke, Stewart received a third place award for a research project, titled Host Preference of Wild Northern and Southern Ixodes scapularis, at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles in May. Hannah additionally tied for first place in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Division of the 2014 Long Island Science & Engineering Fair.

Her research with Burke involved a laboratory study of the black-legged tick and the spread of Lyme Disease. Burkes lab has been exploring the ecology of Lyme disease since 2007, focusing on the role that lizards play in reducing the prevalence of the disease.

Stewarts summer 2013 work explored the leading hypothesis that attempts to explain why human cases of Lyme disease are so much more common in the northern U.S. than in the south, although both the necessary ticks and bacteria occur throughout both areas.

This hypothesis is based on the observation that ticks in the south often feed on different animal host species than ticks in the north. Stewart tested whether ticks choose their hosts randomly or whether ticks from different places have different host preferences. Her work showed that both northern and southern black-legged ticks preferred lizard hosts over mammal hosts, and therefore they only feed on mammals in the north when there are no lizards available.

We found that lizards are crummy hosts for the Lyme disease bacteria, said Burke. Down south, lizards dont pass on Lyme disease and this keeps the rate of the disease low. Hannah did some experiments to find out whether ticks actually prefer to feed off of lizards or mice, and her work shows that ticks, if given the choice, will choose to feed off of lizards. Her work will help us move forward with our studies in our effort to understand the spread of this disease.

Burke said he received an email from Stewart requesting an opportunity to work in his lab. In these independent research projects, Burke chooses students that boast a high interest in biology and perform well in school. Burke said Stewart was impressive on both counts.

See more here:
Students Mind Ticks With Science