Dr. Thangamani’s research focuses on understanding the role of tick feeding and tick salivary factors in the establishment of Powassan virus. His long-term goal is to develop novel strategies to control tick-borne virus transmission. To this end, he is employing cutting edge techniques to unravel the functional role of salivary factors (proteins and microRNAs) in facilitating Powassan virus transmission. Understanding the function(s) of these molecules, and how it interacts with the host immune system is vital to development of novel disease transmission control strategies. Recently, Dr. Thangamani has initiated research to understand the effect of Powassan virus co-infection on Lyme disease transmission.