Dr Lorenza Beati is Associate Professor and Curator of the US National Tick Collection, Georgia Southern University. She is also Affiliated Associate Research Scientist at the Yale School of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health. Dr Beati is a specialist in molecular diagnostics of tick-borne diseases including Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF), Lyme disease, leishmani vectors and other emerging diseases. She has consulted and worked in many countries of Africa, Europe and the USA. Dr Beati visited RUSVM in October 2006 and will visit again 14-22 May 2007. This was Dr Beati’s second visit and was joined by colleagues from Yale University. The following research activities took place.