ISSUED: 5 November 2018
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s President’s Lecture Series will explore tick-borne illnesses during a lecture titled “Lyme Disease” by Dr. Roberta Lynn DeBiasi, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children’s National Health System. She will be joined by Jason Miller, assistant professor of computer information science at Shepherd, who will give a talk titled “Tick Genomes.” The event, which is sponsored by the Shepherd University Foundation and Lifelong Learning Program, will take place on Monday, November 12, at 6:30 p.m. in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education auditorium. It is free and open to the public and a reception will follow.
DeBiasi will discuss what causes Lyme disease and the fact that, if left untreated, it can spread to the joints, heart, and nervous system. DeBiasi is a professor of pediatrics and microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine, and principal investigator in the Center for Translational Science at Children’s Research Institute. Her research expertise includes basic science, clinical/translational research, and severe and emerging viral infections.
Miller has expertise in the development of bioinformatics software for processing DNA sequencing data. He just published a journal article on genome sequencing in ticks, titled “A draft genome sequence for the Ixodes scapularis cell line, ISE6.” He contributed to the Celera Assembler family of genome assembly software programs (CA, CAbog, AlpaCA, and CAnu) and to the publications of many animal and plant genome studies.
For more information on the President’s Lecture Series, visit www.shepherd.edu/president/presidents-lecture-series, or contact Karen Rice, director of continuing education and lifelong learning, at 304-876-5135 or krice@shepherd.edu.
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