Current research projects:

(1) Population and evolutionary biology of the relapsing fever Borrelia species, including the newly-identified human pathogen Borrelia miyamotoi.

(2) Diversity and genetics of host responses of the reservoir Peromyscus leucopus to infection with Borrelia burgdorferi and other Ixodes tick-borne agents (a multi-disciplinary collaboration with the quantitative geneticist Anthony Long of U.C. Irvine, the ecologist Jean Tsao of Michigan State University, and the Peromyscus Genetics Stock Center of the University of South Carolina). (Active NIH support)

(3) Carbon monoxide, a real-time quantifiable biomarker for inflammation and stress, in the exhaled breath of humans and other animals with infection or trauma (a collaboration with the atmospheric chemist Donald Blake of U.C. Irvine). (Active NIH support)