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ryanelliott.bsky.social
🩸Babesiosis
Babesia microti

Spread via deer tick (Ixodes scapularis)

Hemolytic anemia,⬇️Platelets

PB smear: classic Maltese cross in RBC

Rx = Atovaquone+Azithromycin
#hemesky #IDsky #medsky #ticksky #ticktalk
December 8, 2024 at 12:24 AM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Happy Valentines Day!
(artwork by Mona Luo)
#TickSky
Cartoon of an embedded tick, with a heart-shaped scutum. Captioned “I’m stuck on you!”
February 14, 2025 at 12:48 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Tick-Borne Disease Research Program of DoD/CDMRP will NOT be funded during the coming year.
#MicroSky #TickSky 🦠🧪🧬🧫🔬
Flier for FY2024 TBDRP
March 28, 2025 at 1:39 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Ticks and Tickborne Diseases Symposium
at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore
April 30, 2025
Registration:
publichealth.jhu.edu/lyme-and-tic...

#MicroSky #TickSky 🦠🧫🧫🔬
Announcement for Johns Hopkins Tick-Borne Disease Conference, April 30, 2025
January 31, 2025 at 12:45 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
On Tick Midichloria

#MicroSky
#TickSky
c0nc0rdance.bsky.social c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Dec 8
GOOD NEWS for all Orthodox Jedi (reformed) practitioners: MIDICHLORIANS have been discovered!

Now the BAD NEWS: they've been discovered in Ixodes ticks.

"Candidatus Midichloria" are a real bacteria found in the ovaries of certain hard-bodied ticks & they DO have some unusual properties.
a man with long hair is standing in front of a sign that says his cells
Alt: Qui-Gon Jinn stands before the Jedi Council and says: "His cells have the highest concentration of midi-chlorians i have seen in a life-form."
media.tenor.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:21 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Delightful interview with my friend and mentor, Dr. Tom Schwan!
history.nih.gov/display/hist...

#MicroSky #TickSky 🦠🧫🧪🔬
Tom Schwan in the woods, wearing a T-shirt that reads: "Tick Fever, Catch It"
February 7, 2025 at 4:20 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Important insights on the motility of Amblyomma americanum, the lone star tick, which will chase you down and bite you!
#TickSky
areyoukeddingme.bsky.social Karen C. Poh @areyoukeddingme.bsky.social · Jan 16
DYK lone star ticks are SUPER mobile? But how much do they actually move in the field/lab? Danny Marshall (PhD student in Jeb Owen's lab) just published a paper on movement activity of LSTs.👏 We hope this work will help with future movement modeling of lone star ticks!

Link: doi.org/10.1186/s130...
Spatial and temporal activity patterns of Amblyomma americanum - Parasites & Vectors
Background Estimates of tick abundance and distribution are used to determine the risk of tick-host contact. Tick surveys provide estimates of distributions and relative abundance for species that rem...
doi.org
January 17, 2025 at 1:41 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Pleased to be hosting Rob Lochhead @lochhead.bsky.social for a seminar on Tuesday, March 18:
"Uncovering mechanisms of chronic Lyme arthritis"

#MicroSky #TickSky 🦠🧫🧪🔬🧬
Flier for Dr. Robert Lochhead's seminar at University of Kentucky
March 17, 2025 at 5:54 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
19th International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and Other Tick-Borne Diseases.
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Sept 7-10, 2025

🦠🧫🧪🧬🔬 #MicroSky #TickSky
Image of Chicago with date info for ICLB 2025: September 7-10, 2025
January 10, 2025 at 11:54 AM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
3rd Annual Ticks and Tickborne Diseases Symposium.
Baltimore, MD, on April 30, 2025.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health & Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research and Education Institute.

mailchi.mp/2e33f32f42bd...

🦠🧫🧪🔬🧬 #MicroSky #TickSky
picture of tick, advertising Ticks and Tickborne Diseases Symposium
January 17, 2025 at 6:42 PM
lymebiobank.bsky.social
Excited to hear from @jutraslab.bsky.social and @immunofever.bsky.social this Saturday @livlyme.bsky.social. I'm presenting on @bayarealyme.bsky.social Biobank's blood and tissue collection and recently published results. #LymeDisease #MicroSky #TickSky
livlyme.bsky.social The LivLyme Foundation @livlyme.bsky.social · Apr 29
The 6th Annual LivLyme Summit is virtual on Saturday, May 3, 2025!
Join us for a powerful day of expert talks on Lyme disease, co-infections, groundbreaking treatments, and patient care—from world-renowned scientists, & physicians.
This event is free to attend.
Register now at LivLymeFoundation.org
April 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Recent news brings back memories of friend and colleague Nate Nieto, who died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 44, in 2019. This disease has cut short many lives.
Nate was well known in the tick-borne disease community, particularly for his “citizen science” approaches.
#MicroSky
#TickSky
Cartoon of a punk-haired tick riding a boogie board on a wave. From a t-shirt sold to raise funds after Nate Nieto’s death
December 24, 2025 at 3:23 PM
lymebiobank.bsky.social
I'm really excited about the single-tier assays. There are several in development that have positive results in early Lyme samples with EM that STTT and MTTT miss. These single-tier tests are more sensitive without sacrificing specificity and take less time/resources to run.
#TickSky
#MicroSky
August 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
On life cycles of Ixodes ticks
#TickSky
yvinden.bsky.social Yngvild Vindenes @yvinden.bsky.social · Jan 16
New paper (with Atle Mysterud) presenting a tick model.

Ixodes ticks have complex patterns of diapause leading to a highly plastic life cycle. In this paper we consider how this plasticity shapes life history outcomes and seasonal dynamics
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Diagram of tick model transitions between stages across months. Figure of model results (figure 5 from paper), showing the predicted number of questing tick larvae, nymphs and adults across months under different assumptions for small host use of the larvae and nymphs.
January 16, 2025 at 12:39 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Lyme Borreliosis

Nature Reviews Disease Primers
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41888159/

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#TickSky
The Ixodes ricinus complex life cycle comprises four life stages (egg, larva, nymph and adult), where each post-egg stage needs a blood meal to develop into the next stage or reproduce. Larvae and nymphs feed on many vertebrate species, including mammals, songbirds and lizards, whereas adults feed on a narrower range of hosts, most commonly deer. Lyme borreliae are not passed from infected female ticks to their offspring; thus, the bacteria are maintained in an enzootic cycle between immature ticks (larvae and nymphs) and reservoir hosts, typically small mammals and songbirds. For illustrative purposes, this figure typifies the life cycle of Ixodes scapularis in the northeastern USA. Eggs are laid in the late spring; larvae will hatch in mid-summer and then seek their first host in late summer. Engorged larvae will detach, drop off the host and moult into nymphs. Unfed nymphs emerge and quest for their second host the following late spring through summer, which is therefore the epidemiologically most risky time of the year. Engorged nymphs detach, drop off the host and moult into adults in the leaf litter. Beginning in the fall, adult ticks quest for a third host, most commonly deer. Engorged females detach from the host and drop into the leaf litter, where they overwinter. Adult ticks that are unable to locate hosts in the fall will also overwinter and resume questing in early spring. Fed I. scapularis females will oviposit an egg mass (up to 1,500–2,000 eggs), and then die. Although both nymphs and adult females may be infected, because of their small size (about the size of a poppy seed), their large numbers, and a spring/summer activity period that coincides with increased outdoor human activity, nymphs are responsible for most human infections. Because they are larger (about the size of a sesame seed) and have red coloration, adult female ticks are easier to notice and remove before the bacteria can be transmitted
April 2, 2026 at 2:55 PM
lymebiobank.bsky.social
Check out @bayarealyme.bsky.social Dr. Charlotte Mao's call to action for Lyme research in 2026, building on @hhsofficial.bsky.social roundtable on Lyme. www.bayarealyme.org/blog/a-new-y...

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#Microsky
A New Year Call to Action After December 15, 2025, HHS Roundtable - Bay Area Lyme Foundation
Bay Area Lyme Spotlight Series By Charlotte Mao, MD, MPH, Bay Area Lyme Foundation “Chronic Lyme Disease patients have been ignored for too long. That must end now.” – Charlotte Mao, MD, MPH A Long-Ov...
www.bayarealyme.org
January 14, 2026 at 4:19 PM
fried-circus-rat.bsky.social
She's excited to tell you about a new product she just loves #ticks #ticksky #bugsky #alphagal
August 16, 2026 at 12:27 AM
lymebiobank.bsky.social
Opportunity to tell your Senators and Representative that funding for Lyme and tick-borne disease is important. Letters can be customized! #LymeSky #TickSky
app.oneclickpolitics.com/campaign-pag...
Urge Congress to Protect and Grow Federal Funding for Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Programs
Urge Congress to Protect and Grow Federal Funding for Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Programs
app.oneclickpolitics.com
April 23, 2025 at 2:07 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
On interactions between Midichloria and Borrelia in Ixodes ricinus ticks: a multifaceted phenomenon likely driven by molecular mechanisms that regulate tick feeding, modulate host immunity, and provide nutritional support.

www.clinicalkey.com#!/content/pl...

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#TickSky
Figure from article: An overview of the shikimate pathway and genomic distribution of genes encoding enzymes required for chorismate biosynthesis among vertically and horizontally transmitted tick-associated symbionts and pathogens. The shikimate pathway comprises seven enzymatic reactions that convert PEP and E4P into chorismate, a key metabolic intermediate that serves as the precursor for the aromatic amino acids tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. This pathway is found in various bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, protozoans, and plants, but is absent in animals. Genes encoding the enzymes required for chorismate biosynthesis are indicated in brackets in the left panel. Among vertically and horizontally transmitted bacteria associated with ticks, only the genomes of Coxiella and Francisella endosymbionts contain a complete or nearly complete set of shikimate pathway genes necessary for chorismate production. Whole-genome sequences of the most important symbiotic and pathogenic bacteria associated with ticks were retrieved from the NCBI database i and included in the analysis. Abbreviations: CS, chorismate synthase; DAHP, 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate; DAHPS, DAHP synthase; DHQD, 3-dehydroquinate dehydratase; DHQS, 3-dehydroquinate synthase; E4P, erythrose-4-phosphate; EPSP, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate; EPSPS, EPSP synthase; LB, Lyme borreliosis; PEP, phosphoenolpyruvate; RF, relapsing fever; SDH, shikimate dehydrogenase; SK, shikimate kinase.
October 31, 2025 at 6:48 PM
bstevensonlab.bsky.social
Evolutionary Convergence of Nutritional Symbionts in Ticks

Cool new insights on the Coxiella-like and Francisella-like endosymbionts of ticks

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#MicroSky #TickSky
FIGURE 2 from this paper: Confocal imaging of CLE and FLE in the ovaries of ticks using FISH. DNA was directly stained using DAPI (blue), and symbionts with specific probes (magenta). (A, B) O. maritimus and CLE; (C, D) D. marginatus and CLE; (E, F) O. moubata and FLE; (G, H) D. reticulatus and FLE.
June 12, 2025 at 6:12 PM
lymebiobank.bsky.social
Don't miss @livlyme.bsky.social summit on May 3. At 12:45 EST/9:45 PST, I'll be talking about @bayarealyme.bsky.social #LymeDisease #biobank - details on 10 years of collection plus recently published work in diagnostics and pathogenesis. Registration is free #TickSky #MicroSky
livlyme.bsky.social The LivLyme Foundation @livlyme.bsky.social · Apr 26
The LivLyme Summit 2025 is going virtual on May 3rd — packed w/ a powerhouse lineup of Lyme experts, scientists, & advocates from across the 🌎. From chronic Lyme to cutting-edge therapies, don’t miss this FREE, info-filled day of science, and action.
Register now at Livlyme.org. 💚✅
April 28, 2025 at 3:19 PM