Dr. Isobel Ronai is a Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow of HHMI, and a former American Australian Association Scholar, in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Her research focuses on ticks and tick-borne diseases of medical and veterinary importance.
Dr. Ronai is currently investigating the genetics of the key tick species implicated in Lyme disease in the United States of America, the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), with the ultimate aim of developing novel tick control strategies that will reduce tick-borne disease risk.
Previously, Dr. Ronai was awarded an Endeavour Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Columbia University (United States of America) where she led research projects on the genetics and behaviour of ticks. She completed her award-winning Ph.D. at the University of Sydney (Australia).
To raise awareness about the global threat of tick-borne diseases Dr. Ronai collaborates with stakeholders, such as government legislators and Harvard Medical School clinicians. She also writes on this important topic, see Tick management programs could help stop Lyme disease, but US funding is inadequate.
