Most people would shudder at the thought of spending their career surrounded by thousands of ticks, but for Nicoletta Faraone it's a dream come true.
Faraone, an assistant professor of chemistry, will lead the Canada Center for Mite Research and Innovation at Acadia University.
While Faraone's team is currently studying ticks, the new center will be a dedicated research center focusing on tick breeding, repellent testing and research into tick-borne diseases. This will be the first facility of its type in Canada.
“This is very important to protect the public,” Faraone said. “We know very well, particularly in Nova Scotia, that it is the province with the highest number of ticks per capita and that they can become a public health burden.”
Researchers rely on lab-grown ticks to ensure they are disease-free.
There is currently only one known tick breeding facility in North America, Faraone said. The mite breeding facility at Oklahoma State University sells them for $5 each.
The Acadia research center will officially open in the spring, but Faraone said it will take a year to stockpile the mites and begin work.
Luis Angholeto, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry, will serve as lab manager.
He said the experiment typically uses 1,000 ticks, so the cost of purchasing them in the U.S. limits what they can do.
“Having this local code will also allow us to work with strains that are actually present here, so it will make our research relevant to public health in Canada and Nova Scotia,” Anholeto said.
These strains include blacklegged and dog ticks.
The team first tried to launch the program three years ago, but was denied funding.
Large donation
Faraone was losing hope when she received word that donors in Ontario were offering to foot the bill. Peter and Susan Gordon donated $755,000 to get the project off the ground.
“It was a dream come true,” Faraone said. “It’s very nice that people believe in science.”
Faraone said ideally she would like to have three full-time employees at the gallery, but that would require more funding. Her goal is to make him financially self-sufficient within five years by selling tickets.
Angholeto is also excited about the opportunity.
“I fell in love with ticks when I was a student,” he said, noting with a laugh that working with thousands of ticks is not as scary as one might think.
He is determined to learn as much as he can about preventing the further spread of tick-borne diseases.
“I am a person who is also interested in finding new solutions to protect people.”
The team in Wolfville, North Carolina, will test repellents and research tick-borne diseases, and hatch thousands of pests to ship to researchers around the world. Watch Amy Smith's interview with Nicoletta Faraone, who will lead the Canadian Center for Tick Research and Innovation.
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