Caroline Pitts, a senior at the University of Notre Dame double-majoring in Biological Sciences and English, has been awarded $600 from the Eck Institute for Global Health (EIGH) Undergraduate Research Program. Caroline will work closely with Dr. Nicole L. Achee, an EIGH faculty member on her project.
Caroline's research focuses on vector, water, and soil-borne disease hazards in Belize. Her proposal, Detection of emerging pathogens in tick samples collected from tropical grassland sites in Belize, Central America, outlined her intent to use REDI-NET molecular processing and testing SOPs to detect emerging pathogens in tick samples.
Data generated from her research will be integrated into the REDI-NET database and used by the mathematical modeling team to develop pathogen risk maps to track and respond to emerging disease threats.
Select this link for more information on the EIGH Undergraduate Research Program.