A Motivated Senior Capstone

The problems we used to talk about still need solving. Lily Russell ’21 is a Biology/Pre-Physician Assistant major, and motivated by her personal experience with Lyme Disease—her father contracted it several years ago—she is aiming to discover more about the disease and ways to prevent it or even cure it. She’s spending this semester at #SaintJoesMaine on her senior capstone research project entitled “Prevalence of Borrelia Burgdorferi in Deer Ticks (Ixodes Scapularis) of Varying Land Regions Throughout Maine.” With the help of Dr. Luke Bernacki, she’s gathering ticks from different regions across Maine and extracting their DNA, offering insight into how exactly the bacteria is spreading. From there, Russell will conduct PCR amplification and gel electrophoresis in order to see if certain regions of Maine have a higher prevalence of the bacteria which is the causative agent for Lyme Disease in humans. #CourageAndHope