UNH Launches Statewide Initiative to Study Ticks, Diseases and the Environment
As the population of ticks — and the diseases they carry — expands in New Hampshire, UNH has been tapped to lead an ambitious statewide initiative to investigate how these parasites survive, spread, and transmit disease. Funded with $8 million from the National Science Foundation, the project will bring together researchers, students, and community partners from UNH, Keene State College, Plymouth State University, state agencies, and industry collaborators to study the ecology and evolution of ticks across New Hampshire.
The initiative, called EMBEDDEd-NH (Endeavor for Multi-Omics-Based Exploration, Data-Driven Modeling, and Education in New Hampshire), comes at a critical time: New Hampshire is one of the states that consistently ranks among the highest in incidence of Lyme disease in the nation — often ranking in the top ten.
“Ticks are an issue that touches nearly every community in New Hampshire,” says Dr. David Needle, clinical professor of molecular, cellular and biomedical Sciences and senior veterinary pathologist of the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at UNH, who is leading the initiative. “By combining cutting-edge science with statewide collaboration and education, we have an opportunity to build knowledge that benefits both our state and the broader scientific community.”
The project will focus on three important tick species found in New Hampshire:
- The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis), the primary vector of Lyme disease;
- The American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis);
- The winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus), which has major impacts on moose and wildlife health.
Tick-Borne Illnesses Are Expanding
EMBEDDEd-NH could ultimately improve disease surveillance, inform public health responses, support wildlife management, and guide future environmental decision-making. Researchers plan to investigate how ticks survive, spread, and transmit disease by using advanced genomic sequencing, microbiome analysis, environmental monitoring, ecological modeling, and machine learning. They will examine how climate, habitat, wildlife hosts, and microbial communities influence tick biology and pathogen transmission across New Hampshire’s diverse ecosystems.
Tick populations and tick-borne illnesses, including Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Powassan virus, and other emerging infections, continue to expand across the Northeast. Warmer winters, changing land use, shifting wildlife populations, and expanding human development have all contributed to rising tick encounters and disease risk. Health officials and researchers are increasingly concerned not only about established tick-borne diseases, but also about the emergence of new pathogens and the spread of additional tick species into the region.
“Ticks are more than just disease vectors,” Needle said. “They have wide roles as parasites, prey, and hosts of diverse microbes. Their varied lifecycles, wide and increasing dispersal, and status linking ecosystems and ecological scales make ticks a powerful system for studying how genomes, microbes, hosts, and environments interact in a rapidly changing world.”
Research Opportunities for Students; Developing a Workforce
Funded through the NSF’s EPSCoR E-RISE program, which supports statewide research infrastructure, workforce development, and collaborative scientific innovation in emerging research areas, EMBEDDEd-NH also emphasizes education and workforce development. Undergraduate students from across the state will participate directly in research, gaining hands-on experience in genomics, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, ecology, and data science — fields that are increasingly important to the state’s scientific and technology workforce. Along with potential scientific discoveries, EMBEDDEd-NH hopes to inspire more students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and public health.
In addition to Needle, the EMBEDDEd-NH leadership team includes ecological modeling expert Easton White, assistant professor of biological sciences at UNH; Melissa Aikens, UNH associate professor of biological sciences; Kelley Thomas, director of UNH’s Hubbard Center for Genome Studies and professor of molecular, cellular, and biomedical sciences; and Plymouth State University associate professor Mike Son, an expert in microbial pathogenesis. The group is rounded out by UNH associate professor of computer science Marek Petrik; Michael Palace, UNH associate professor of Earth science; and Keene State College professor of biology Loren Launen, providing further expertise in machine learning, geospatial science and remote sensing, and environmental microbiology, respectively.
Bit by a tick? Send it to UNH’s tick testing lab to learn whether it carries Lyme or other diseases.