Meghan E. Hermance

Dr. Meghan E. Hermance is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases (LID) in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of South Alabama’s College of Medicine. Her research focuses on vector biology, particularly arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), with emphasis on tick-borne pathogens like Powassan virus, Heartland virus, and Deer tick virus.

Dr. Hermance holds a Baccalaureate Degree from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. from The University of Texas Medical Branch. Her work integrates tick-host-virus models to investigate transmission dynamics, immunomodulation at the skin interface, and neurotropic virus pathogenesis. She leads studies on the invasive Asian Longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis), assessing its capacity to transmit North American arboviruses and exploring co-feeding transmission mechanisms.

Research highlights include developing small animal models for tick-borne virus pathogenesis, elucidating salivary protein roles in virus transmission, and investigating neuroinvasion pathways in flavivirus infections. Her lab utilizes state-of-the-art biocontainment facilities (ACL-2/3) for vector competence studies and aims to develop transmission-blocking vaccines targeting tick salivary proteins.

Key contributions include identifying tick saliva’s role in facilitating viral neuroinvasion and pioneering community-engaged tick surveillance tools like tickMAP. Ongoing projects focus on transovarial transmission mechanisms and public health strategies to mitigate emerging tick-borne diseases.