Julia C. Frederick, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Environmental Health Science, will defend her doctoral dissertation –  “What makes Ixodes scapularis tick: Population genomics and sex differences of the blacklegged tick ” – on Monday, November 14 at 10:00 a.m. via Zoom. Please email ehsgrad@uga.edu for Zoom details.

Julia Frederick is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Georgia. She received her B.S. in Biology from Georgia Institute of Technology and then worked at NIAID in the Vaccine Production Program Lab before beginning her PhD. Julia’s dissertation focuses on the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, which is almost solely responsible for over 300,000 cases of Lyme disease in humans each year. Using next-generation sequencing, Julia defined the population structure of this species which is highly correlated with Lyme disease prevalence throughout the species range, and identified sex-specific regions for this major disease vector which had previously been unknown.

Advisory Committee Members:
Travis Glenn, Ph.D. (Major Professor)
Charles A. Easley, Ph.D.
Guha Dharmarajan, Ph.D.
Michael J. Yabsley Ph.D.

Everyone is welcome to attend! For more information, contact Darien Bush.