USA College Of Medicine Faculty Member Featured On CDC Podcast

MOBILE, Ala. — In a quest to better understand the interactions between ticks, viruses and mammals, scientist Dr. Meghan Hermance and her colleagues at the University of South Alabama (USA) College of Medicine recently conducted research to determine if they could successfully infect a specific species of tick with a pathogen known as Heartland virus. Hermance, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the college, was interviewed on April 14 about tick infection and transmission of Heartland virus in a lab setting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s podcast Emerging Infectious Diseases. During the discussion, Hermance explains the public health threat from ticks and why it’s critical to better understand the contributing factors related to emerging tick-borne virus transmission. The new research, largely conducted by Wilson R. Raney in the Hermance lab, was funded by a two-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.