Research
Tick Surveillance
Ticks and tick-borne diseases have been on the rise nationally over the past two decades. The USC Laboratory of Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases works with state and federal partners to map and track ticks and their infections in our state. We collect ticks year-round from state parks, animal shelters and public submissions. Please stay tuned as we continue to update publications resulting from this work.
West Nile Virus 2023 Study
West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne disease that can cause fever, meningitis or encephalitis is a small subset of infected people. No vaccine or treatment exists for West Nile virus, therefore prevention of mosquito bites is public health priority. Richland County, South Carolina is historically home to periodic West Nile virus outbreaks. This summer 2023 study includes three study arms to better understand the integrated factors that must be present for human infection to occur: mosquitos, humans and the environment. For more information on West Nile virus and how you can prevent infection please see the attached fliers. More information
ALL-IN SC
The ALL-IN SC Study is a collaboration between the University of South Carolina and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. This study aims to evaluate the community buy-in for and accuracy of self-testing COVID-19 options. This three year study funded by the CDC Office of Minority Health leverages community partnerships to perform focus groups and host testing events across the state of South Carolina. For more information, please visit our dedicated study page: https://allin-sc.org
ACTT Study
The ACTT Study (Aedes Control through Technology Trapping) is a collaboration between the University of South Carolina, Baylor College of Medicine and the Florida International University. This study aims to improve vector control through development of remote sensing based forecast modelling programs and next generation mosquito traps. This five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health collects mosquito data from Houston, Texas and Miami, Florida to inform geospatial modelling and sensor-based mosquito traps. More information can be found here: https://acttstudy.org
STICK Study
The STICK Study (Sexually Transmitted Infection Concomitance and Kinetics) aims to define the epidemiology of multiple sexually transmitted infections in adolescents and young adults. Funded by the South Carolina SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality, this proposal aims to establish a prospective cohort to study the prevalence and incidence of concomitant TV and co-STIs (HIV, NG and CT) in a heavily burdened state. Further this study will biobank samples for translational research investigations to understand how host genetics, vaginal microbiome and immune responses vary by co-infection status and between disease phenotype.
Climate Change and Pediatric Health Study
Funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, this project employs big data methods to elucidate the impact of three decade’s extreme weather events on early childhood development in the United States. This technologically innovative project leverages advanced computational and statistical methods to integrate >1.5 billion individual datapoints from restricted and publicly available datasets to evaluate the relationship between drought and temperature deviations on USA pediatric population’s development milestones at the neighborhood level.
USC Institute for Infectious Disease Translational Research
This high priority four-year intramural research institute grant will construct new university networks to generate key scientific evidence on the pathogenic pathways leading to disease emergence and persistence. These key investigations bring together USC faculty in productive research collaborations to address disease transmission risk across the molecular-individual-population ecological scale. For more information, please visit our website: https://sc.edu/infectious-disease-institute