From Micro-Biology to Macro-Maps: How AI Transforms Tick Proteomics into Real-World Outbreak Predictors Published in Computational Virology & Epidemiology • 2026 Imagine a virus capable of bypassing a tick’s internal defense system, traveling from its digestive tract to its saliva, and jumping into livestock and humans with devastating clinical consequences. This is the reality of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) , a high-consequence bunyavirus rapidly emerging as a critical public health priority across East and Southeast Asia. For decades, studying vector-borne diseases meant looking at field ecology and laboratory molecular biology as two completely separate worlds. Today, the integration of AI-driven structural biology and machine learning bridges that gap perfectly. By analyzing the dual proteomic profiles of the primary vector—the Asian longhorned tick ( Haemaphysalis longicornis )—specifically from its midgut (stomach) and salivary glands (mouth)...