Professor Emeritus of Medical Entomology
Professor Emeritus of Medical Entomology
B.A., Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 1966
M.A., Biology, San Francisco State College, 1969
Ph.D., Medical Entomology, University of California, Berkeley, 1974
Medical Entomology, Biology of Ticks, Eco-epidemiology and Prevention of Tick-Borne Diseases, Wildlife Parasitology
In collaboration with many esteemed former lab members and other co-workers globally, we study the biology and control of ticks, and the eco-epidemiology of various tick-borne disease agents, particularly Lyme disease (LD) spirochetes. The diseases that we have investigated in the United States and/or Europe have included Borrelia miyamotoi disease, Colorado tick fever, canine babesiosis, human anaplasmosis, human babesiosis, Pacific Coast tick fever, relapsing fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tick paralysis, tularemia, and particularly LD. Findings emanating from these studies have illuminated some of the basic transmission cycles of, and behavioral or environmental risk factors for, exposure to spotted fever group rickettsiae and LD spirochetes; and identified contemporary and future suitable habitat and climatic conditions for the western blacklegged tick. Our ultimate goal has been to employ the basic knowledge gathered to develop and implement effective strategies (e.g., outreach activities, host-targeted methods, repellents) to minimize exposure to vector ticks and prevent tick-borne illnesses.
Brown, R.N. and Lane, R.S. 1992. Lyme disease in California: a novel enzootic
transmission cycle of Borrelia burgdorferi. Science 256:1439-1442.Lane, R.S., Manweiler, S.A., Stubbs, H.A., Lennette, E.T., Madigan, J.E., and Lavoie,
P.E. 1992. Risk factors for Lyme disease in a small rural community in northern
California. Am. J. Epidemiol. 136:1358-1368.Persing, D.H., Herwaldt, B.L., Glaser, C., Lane, R.S., Thomford, J.W., Mathiesen, D.,
Krause, P.J., Philip, D.F., and Conrad, P.A. 1995. Infection with a Babesia-like
organism in northern California. N. Engl. J. Med. 332:298-303.Lane, R.S., Kleinjan, J.E., and Schoeler, G.B. 1995. Diel activity of nymphal
Dermacentor occidentalis and Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) in relation to
meteorological factors and host activity periods. J. Med. Entomol. 32:290-299.Clover, J.R. and Lane, R.S. 1995. Evidence implicating nymphal Ixodes pacificus
(Acari: Ixodidae) in the epidemiology of Lyme disease in California. Am. J. Trop. Med.
Hyg. 53:237-240.Brown, R.N. and Lane, R.S. 1996. Reservoir competence of four chaparral-dwelling
rodents for Borrelia burgdorferi in California. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 54:84-91.Lane, R.S. and Quistad, G.B. 1998. Borreliacidal factor in the blood of the western
fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis). J. Parasitol. 84:29-34.Postic, D., Ras, N.M., Lane, R.S., Hendson, M., and Baranton, G. 1998. Expanded
diversity among Californian Borrelia isolates and description of Borrelia bissettii sp.
nov. (formerly Borrelia group DN127). J. Clin. Microbiol. 36:3497-3504.Lane, R.S., Peavey, C.A., Padgett, K.A., and Hendson, M. 1999. Life history of Ixodes
(Ixodes) jellisoni (Acari: Ixodidae) and its vector competence for Borrelia burgdorferi
sensu lato. J. Med. Entomol. 36:329-340.Lane, R.S., Moss, R.B., Hsu, Y.-P., Wei, T., Mesirow, M.L., and Kuo, M.M. 1999. Anti-
arthropod saliva antibodies among residents of a community at high risk for Lyme
disease in California. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 61:850-859.Kuo, M.M., Lane, R.S., and Giclas, P.C. 2000. A comparative study of
mammalian and reptilian alternative pathway of complement-mediated killing of the
Lyme disease spirochete (Borrelia burgdorferi). J. Parasitol. 86:1223-1228.Lane, R.S. and Anderson, J.R. 2001. Research on animal-borne parasites and pathogens
helps prevent human disease. Calif. Agric. 55:13-18.Gray, J.S., Kahl, O., Lane, R.S. and Stanek, G. 2002. Lyme borreliosis: Biology,
epidemiology and control. CABI Publishing, Oxon, United Kingdom. 347 pp.Eisen, L., Eisen, R.J., Chang, C.-C., Mun, J., and Lane, R.S. 2004. Acarologic risk of
exposure to Borrelia burgdorferi spirochaetes: long-term evaluations in northwestern
California, with implications for Lyme borreliosis risk-assessment models. Med. Vet.
Entomol. 18:38-49.Foley, J.E., Foley, P., Brown, R.N., Lane, R.S., Dumler, J.S., and Madigan, J.E. 2004.
Ecology of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi in the western United
States. J. Vector Ecol. 29:41-50.Lane, R.S., Steinlein, D.B., and Mun, J. 2004. Human behaviors elevating exposure to
Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) nymphs and their associated bacterial zoonotic agents
in a hardwood forest. J. Med. Entomol. 41:239-248.Eisen, R.J., Lane, R.S., Fritz, C.L, and Eisen, L. 2006. Spatial patterns of Lyme disease
risk in California based on disease incidence data and modeling of vector-tick exposure.
Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 75:669-676.Salkeld, D.J., Leonhard, S., Girard, Y.A., Hahn, N., Mun, J., Padgett, K.A., and Lane, R.
S. 2008. Identifying the reservoir hosts of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia
burgdorferi in California: the role of the western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus). Am. J.
Trop. Med. Hyg. 79:535-540.Girard, Y.A., Travinsky, B., Schotthoefer, A., Fedorova, N., Eisen, R.J., Eisen, L.,
Barbour, A.G., and Lane, R.S. 2009. Population structure of the Lyme borreliosis
spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi in the western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) in
northern California. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75:7243-7252.Eisen, L., Eisen, R.J., Mun, J., Salkeld, D.J., and Lane, R.S. 2009. Transmission cycles
of Borrelia burgdorferi and B. bissettii in relation to habitat type in northwestern
California. J. Vector Ecol. 34:81-91.Eisen, R.J., Eisen, L., Girard, Y.A., Fedorova, N., Mun, J., Slikas, B., Leonard, S.,
Kitron, U., and Lane, R.S. 2010. A spatially-explicit model of acarological risk of
exposure to Borrelia burgdorferi-infected Ixodes pacificus nymphs in northwestern
California based on woodland type, temperature, and water vapor. Ticks Tick-Borne Dis.
1:35-43.Girard, Y.A., Fedorova, N., and Lane, R.S. 2011. Genetic diversity of Borrelia
burgdorferi and detection of B. bissettii-like DNA in serum of north-coastal California
residents. J. Clin. Microbiol. 49:945-954.Swei, A., Ostfeld, R.S., Lane, R.S., and Briggs, C.J. 2011. Impact of the experimental
removal of lizards on Lyme disease risk. Proc. R. Soc. B. 278:2970-2978.Fedorova, N., Kleinjan, J.E., James, D., Hui, L.T., Peeters, H., and Lane, R.S. 2014.
Remarkable diversity of tick or mammalian-associated Borreliae in the metropolitan San
Francisco Bay Area, California. Ticks Tick-Borne Dis. 5:951-961.Lane, R.S., and Kjemtrup, A. M. 2016. Lyme disease in California. Pest Notes Publ.
7485. Univ. Calif. Div. Agric. Nat. Res. 6 p.Wierzbicka, A., Rączka, G., Skorupski, M., Michalik, J., Lane, R.S. 2016. Human
behaviors elevating the risk of exposure to Ixodes ricinus larvae and nymphs in two types
of lowland coniferous forests in west-central Poland. Ticks Tick-Borne Dis. 7:1180-1185.Padgett, K.A., Bonilla, D., Eremeeva, M.E., Glaser, C., Lane, R.S., Porse, C.C., Castro,
M.B., Messenger, S., Espinosa, A., Hacker, J., Kjemtrup, A., Ryan, B., Scott, J.J., Hu, R.,
Yoshimizu, M.H., Dasch, G.A., and Kramer, V. 2016. The eco-epidemiology of Pacific
Coast tick fever in California. PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. 10(10):
e0005020.doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0005020.Krause, P.J., Carroll, M., Fedorova, N., Brancato, J., Dumouchel, C., Akosa, F.,
Narasimhan, S., Fikrig, E., and Lane, R.S. 2018. Human Borrelia miyamotoi infection in
California: Serodiagnosis is complicated by multiple endemic Borrelia species. PLoS
ONE 13(2):e0191725.Eisen, R.J., Feirer, S., Padgett, K.A., Hahn, M.B., Monaghan, A.J., Kramer, V.L., Lane,
R.S., and Kelly, M. 2018. Modeling climate suitability of the western blacklegged tick in
California. J. Med. Entomol. 55:1133-1142.Swei, A., O'Connor, K.E., Couper, L.I., Thekkiniath, J., Conrad, P.A., Padgett, K.A.,
Burns, J., Yoshimizu, M.H., Gonzales, B., Munk, B., Shirkey, N., Konde, L.,Mamoun,
C.B., Lane, R.S., and Kjemtrup, A. 2019. Evidence for transmission of the zoonotic
apicomplexan parasite Babesia duncani by the tick Dermacentor albipictus. Int. J.
Parasitol. 49:95-103.Rose, I., Yoshimizu, M.H., Bonilla, D.L., Fedorova, N., Lane, R.S., and Padgett, K.A.
2019. Phylogeography of Borrelia spirochetes in Ixodes pacificus and Ixodes spinipalpis
ticks highlights differential acarological risk of tick-borne disease transmission in
northern versus southern California. PLoS One doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214726Liberska, J., Michalik, J., Pers-Kamczyc, E., Wierzbicka, A., Lane, R.S., Rączka, G.,
Opalińska, P., Skorupski, M., and Dabert, M. 2021. Prevalence of Babesia canis DNA in
Ixodes ricinus ticks collected in forest and urban ecosystems in west-central Poland.
Ticks Tick-Borne Dis. 12:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2021.101786Hahn, M.B., Feirer, S., Monaghan, A.J., Lane, R.S., Eisen, R.J., Padgett, K.A., and Kelly,
M. 2021. Modeling future climate suitability for the western blacklegged tick, Ixodes
pacificus, in California with an emphasis on land access and ownership. Ticks Tick-
Borne Dis. 12: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2021.101789Paddock, C.D., Slater, K., Swei, A., Zambrano, M.L., Kleinjan, J.E., Padgett, K.A.,
Saunders, M.E.M., Andrews, E.S., Trent, E., Zhong, J., Sambado, S., Goldsmith, C.S.,
Pascoe, E.L., Foley, J., Lane, R.S., and Karpathy, S.E. 2022. Detection and isolation of
Rickettsia tillamookensis (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) from Ixodes pacificus (Acari:
Ixodidae) from multiple regions of California. J. Med. Entomol.
https://doi.org/10 .1093/jme/tjac038. 9 p.
Fellow, California Academy of Sciences, 1985
President, Northern California Parasitologists, 1986-87, 1997-99
President, International Northwestern Conference on Diseases in Nature Communicable to Man, 1990
Chair, Section D (Medical/Veterinary Entomology), Entomological Society of America, 1991
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1998
President, Acarological Society of America, 1998-99
UC Berkeley Biology Faculty Research Award, 1999
C. W. Woodworth Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Entomology,
Entomological Society of America, Pacific Branch, 2001President, Society for Vector Ecology, 2002
Community Service Award, California Lyme Disease Association, 2008
Honorary Member, Council for the International Congresses of Entomology, 2012
Harry Hoogstraal Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Entomology, 2014
- 24 - FRESHMAN SEMINAR
- 199 - SUPERV INDEP STUDY
- 248C - Seminar in Parasitology
- 298 - DIRECT GROUP STUDY