When Camille Guillot joined the Canadian Lyme Disease Research Network (CLyDRN) as a doctoral student in veterinary medicine at the Université de Montréal, she gained research experience and a supportive community, both professionally and personally.

What happens when you bring together researchers, health professionals, policymakers, patient partners, and trainees with diverse expertise to share information and ideas on tick-borne disease research? You get a scientific symposium that has become a keystone forum for interdisciplinary dialogue.

In late March to early June, you can usually find Stefan Iwasawa around Vancouver Island forested parks and trails monitoring outdoor areas for ticks by dragging a one-metre squared piece of white fabric along the ground hoping that ticks will latch on. This technique, known as tick-dragging, is one of the methods researchers use across…