Most people would cringe at the thought of spending their careers surrounded by thousands of ticks, but for Nicoletta Faraone, it’s a dream come true.
Faraone, an associate professor of chemistry, will lead the Canadian Tick Research and Innovation Centre at Acadia University.
While Faraone’s team currently studies ticks, the new facility will be a dedicated research centre focused on breeding ticks, testing repellents and researching tick-borne diseases. It will be the first facility of its kind in Canada.
“It’s very important for protecting the public,” Faraone said. “We know very well, especially for Nova Scotia, that it’s the province with the highest number of ticks per capita, that they can be a burden for public health.”
Researchers depend on lab-bred ticks because it ensures they are disease-free.
Currently, there is just one known facility that breeds ticks in North America, said Faraone. The tick-rearing facility at Oklahoma State University sells them for $5 each.
The research centre at Acadia will officially open in the spring, but Faraone said it will take a year to build up stocks of the ticks and get to work.
Luís Anholeto, a post-doctoral fellow in the department of chemistry, will be the lab manager.
He said it’s common to use 1,000 ticks in an experiment, so the cost of buying them from the U.S. limits what they’re able to do.
“Having this local tickery will also allow us to work with strains that are actually present here, so it will make our research relevant for Canadian public health and Nova Scotia,” said Anholeto.
Those strains include blacklegged and dog ticks.
The team first tried to start the tickery three years ago, but were denied applications to funding.
Major donation
Faraone was losing hope when she received word that donors in Ontario were offering to foot the bill. Peter and Susan Gordon are donating $755,000, which will get the project off the ground.
“It was a dream come true,” said Faraone. “It’s very rewarding that people believe in science.”
Faraone said ideally, she wants three full-time staff to work in the tickery, but will need more funding to make that happen. Her goal is to make it financially self-sufficient in five years by selling the ticks.
Anholeto is equally thrilled by the opportunity.
“I fell in love with ticks when I was an undergrad student,” he said, noting with a laugh that working with thousands of ticks isn’t as creepy as one would think.
He’s determined to learn as much as possible about preventing further spread of tick-borne diseases.
“I am the person that is also interested in finding new solutions to protecting humans.”
The team in Wolfville, N.S., will test repellents and research tick-borne diseases, but it will also breed thousands of the pests to send to researchers around the world. Watch Amy Smith’s interview with Nicoletta Faraone, who will lead the Canadian Tick Research and Innovation Centre.
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