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Biology professor Jianmin Zhong is working alongside students in his tick research lab to learn more about a novel bacterium found in certain varieties of ticks. The research team, which includes both undergraduate and graduate students, is investigating the bacteria’s ability to cause disease. What they learn may help uncover treatment options and reduce the rate of infections. The team is examining the potential pathogen, Rickettsia species phylotype G022, in Western black-legged ticks. The ticks, which are spread across the Pacific West Coast from Washington throughout California, are the most common human biters in these areas.

As an intern at Bird Ally X, I strive to be a sponge. Although I've only worked with this organization for 6 months, I can confidently say that I've never been as prepared for wildlife care as I am now. On a weekly basis, I work with birds across multiple phylogenetic families. When patients come in, we start with an intake exam. Due to the high volume of patients, I frequently get the chance to lead these exams. After we've done an initial exam, part of my responsibility is to calculate medication dosages, required nutrition, and hydration levels. If we deem a bird dehydrated we have three options: tubing, subcutaneous fluids, and IV. A large volume of our patients come in with needing hydration and nutritional care assistance. Meaning that tubing and injecting subcutaneous fluids is almost second nature for me. As well as nutritional care, I also frequently collect fecal samples in hopes of solidifying our diagnosis and continued care plan. I'm becoming increasingly more comfortable with parasitology as a result of this training. Finally, we take a substantial amount of blood samples because of our admission volume. This means that I not only get the opportunity to collect blood from patients, I've also gained a newfound confidence in interpreting the CBC after the blood is spun.