Janet Sperling, PhD

Board page

President, CanLyme, Entomologist 

Janet is an entomologist intrigued by ticks and fascinated by the bacterial communities they carry. First introduced to Lyme disease as an undergraduate student, she was horrified to discover 20 years later that learning about Lyme in a classroom isn’t enough to prevent the devastation of Lyme disease in active kids.

Janet’s research focusses on description of the bacterial microbiome of 6 commonly encountered species of ticks from across Canada using 16S rRNA. The bacterial microbiome of Ixodes scapularis, I. pacificus and I. angustus ticks has been compared to the microbiome of Dermacentor variabilis, D. andersoni and D. albipctus. Understanding the population structure of ticks and processes that may contribute to it, such as bird migration routes, contributes to modelling the spread of tick-associated diseases. She continue to explore functional hypotheses of processes underlying patterns of microbial community composition within and between tick species and limitations of our commonly used techniques.

Janet received her BSc (Horticulture) in 1983,  MSc (Entomology) in 1988 and PhD (Systematics and Evolution) in 2021 from the University of Alberta.

Janet Sperling smile with her lab coat on at the University of Alberta.
All of the tools in the most fully featured tick removal kit are on display.

Tick removal kits

1 min read
We are a volunteer driven, registered charity. All proceeds go to education, prevention, awareness, research, and support.
Read More
A diagram of tick hotspots hover over top of an image of a hiker carrying a backpack.

Prevention tips

3 min read
Regular tick checks are a way to check your body for crawling or embedded ticks. Check everywhere including these hotspots.
Read More
Mother and child sit together tenderly in the beautiful light streaming into the kitchen through a multi panel window.

Donate now

6 min read
Your donation helps us to fund research and education for health care providers, advance prevention and awareness of Lyme disease – and more.
Read More
Illustrations in four panels of how to remove a tick by using tweezers and grabbing way low down near where it's embedded on the skin and pulling straight up, and then washing the skin around where it was embedded.

Tick removal

2 min read
If you’ve discovered an embedded tick on yourself or someone else there are a few important things to remember.
Read More
A microscopic view of borrelia burgdorferi, a corkscrew shaped bacteria.

Lyme basics

3 min read
Although it is most commonly associated with a tick bite, many people who have Lyme disease do not recall seeing or feeling a tick bite.
Read More
A woman walks with her two dogs along a path near in the forest.

Prevention

7 min read
By taking the right precautions and spreading the word, you can effectively protect yourself, and your family, from Lyme.
Read More