A sign at the entrance to the newly established laboratory of Northeastern University assistant biology professor Constantin Takacs warns visitors of the tiny menaces that dwell within.
“There are ticks present in the space,” it says. “Do not enter this room without the knowledge and permission of the Takacs lab.”
To make sure the poppyseed-sized black-legged ticks recently arrived from a breeding facility don’t escape, the doorway to the testing room is lined with a white double-sided sticky mat.
The precautions are meant to ensure researchers’ safety as they use new techniques to follow Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, inside the tick over the course of the tick’s two-year life cycle.
With cases of Lyme disease spreading and outpacing mosquito-borne illnesses in the U.S., it’s more important than ever to explore the cycle of disease and potential ways to interrupt it, Takacs says.
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Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
