Dr. Jianmin Zhong was awarded a $590,000 four-year grant titled “The Ecology and Classification of Rickettsia Species Phylotype G022, an Uncharacterized Bacterium from Ixodes pacificus Ticks” from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The proposed research studies the bacterium's survival in deer ticks, detects the bacterium's infection rate in domestic dogs, and gives it a unique scientific name. Our findings will advance the vital long-term research goal of our lab, investigating the suspicion that the G022 bacterium poses a risk of infection to humans and domestic animals across the Pacific West Coast.