Peter Whitcomb Rand, M.D.

Senior Investigator
Vector-borne Disease Laboratory
75 John Roberts Road, Suite 9B
South Portland ME 04106
(207) 662-7141 Office
(207) 662-7147 Fax
randp@mmc.org

Biosketch

Dr. Rand received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1955 and came to Maine Medical Center for his internship and residency. He completed a Cardiology Fellowship at Maine Medical Center in 1961 and a U.S.P.H.S. Postdoctoral Fellow in 1963 and was an Attending Physician in the Department of Internal Medicine. Since 1963, he has served as a Research Associate and Director of the Research Department at Maine Medical Center. From 1990- 1994 he was the Associate Vice President of Research. He has held academic posts in Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and the University of Vermont College of Medicine, and in Applied Immunology at the University of Southern Maine. In addition, he has served on the IRB, the Medical Research Committee, the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee and Chiefs Council at Maine Medical Center. He was a founding  Board Member of the Maine Biological and Medical Sciences Symposium, Inc. and has served on the Institutional Review Board of the Foundation for Blood Research.

Research Interests

Dr. Rand’s recent research interests include the environmental factors influencing the emergence and establishment of the vector tick of Lyme disease and other human pathogens. With colleagues he has demonstrated the competence of deer mice, Norway rats and passerine birds to harbor and transmit the Lyme disease spirochete. They have documented the relationship of tick abundance to both the abundance of deer and to their complete removal, and measured the impact of temperature, thus biophysical region, on the early developmental stages of the tick. A free tick identification program has mapped the advance of the vector tick into the state, and repeated canine Lyme serosurveys have demonstrated where disease transmission is taking place. This information has been used to alert health care professionals, to educate the public regarding prevention and control methods, and to support state policy regarding deer management.

Selected Publications

Steere, A.C., Sikand, V.K. Maurice, F., and the Lyme Disease Vaccine Study Group (Smith, R.P., Rand, P.W., Holman, M., and Lacombe, E.H):  Vaccination against Lyme disease with recombinant Borrelia burgdorferi outer-surface lipoprotein A With adjuvant.  New Engl. J. Med. 339: 209-215, 1998.

Lacombe, E.H., P.W. Rand, and R.P. Smith, Jr.:  Severe reaction in domestic animals following the bite of Ixodes muris (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks.  J. Med. Entomol.  36(3): 227-232, 1999.

Rand, P.W., E.H. Lacombe, M.S. Holman, C. Lubelczyk and R.P. Smith, Jr.:  Attempt to control ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) on deer on an isolated island using Ivermectin-treated corn.  J. Med. Entomol. 37(1): 126-133, 2000.

 Smith, R., MD, P. Rand, MD, E. Lacombe, M. Holman, C. Lubelczyk:  Outbreak of Powassan encephalitis - Maine and Vermont 1999-2001.  MMWR, 761-764, 2001.

Goethert, H.K., C. Lubelcyzk, E. Lacombe, M. Holman, P. Rand, R.P. Smith Jr., and S.R. Telford, III:  Enzootic Babesia microti in Maine.  J. Parasitol., 89 (5), pp. 1069-1071, 2003.

 Rand, P. W. Lubelczyk, C., Lavigne, G. R., Elias, C., Holman, M. S., Lacombe, E. H., and Smith, R. P., Jr.:  Deer Density and the abundance of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae).  J. Med. Entomol. 40 (2): 179-184, 2003.

Holman, M. S., Caporale, D. A., Goldberg, J., Lacombe, E., Lubelczyk, C., Rand, P. W., and Smith, R. P. Anaplasma phagocytophylum, Babesia microti, and Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodes scapularis, southern coastal Maine. Emerging Infectious Diseases 10 (4): 744-746, 2004.

Rand, P. W., Holman, M. S., Lubelczyk, C., Lacombe, E. H., DeGaetano, A. T., and Smith, R. P., Jr. Thermal accumulation and the early development of Ixodes scapularis. Journal of Vector Ecology 29 (1): 164-176, 2004

Rand, P. W., Lubelczyk, Holman, M. S., Lacombe, E. H., and Smith, R. P., Jr. Abundance of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) after the complete removal of deer from and offshore island, endemic for Lyme disease. J. Med. Entomol. 41 (4): 779-784, 2004.

Lubelczyk, C. B., Elias, S. P., Rand, P. W., Holman, M. S., Lacombe, E. H., and Smith, R. P., Jr. Habitat associations of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) in Maine. Environmental Entomology 33 (4): 900-906, 2004.