Zika. West Nile. Yellow Fever. Dengue. These dangerous diseases are transmitted through insects such as mosquitos, ticks, blackflies, and sandflies, all of which feed off on blood during part or all stages of their lifecycle. Catherine Hill, professor of entomology, and her multidisciplinary team are striving to find a cure to the myriad of diseases spread through these arthropod vectors. Although research on such disease transmission has been the subject of medical research, the typical approach has been to destroy the virus by terminating the insect.
This Purdue research team has a revolutionary approach, with sustainability in mind.
Hill and her team approached this dilemma by developing a chemical compound that will block the virus transmission from mosquitos to humans in a way that will not harm either the insect or its host, eliminating the risk for such infections. The team acknowledges the fact that getting rid of mosquitos, ticks, and other insects would be harmful to the environment and dangerous in the long-term, as these insects play a crucial role in our ecosystem. The team of political scientists, communicators, chemists, pharmacologists and entomologists aims to take control of the matter within the next 5-10 years. Once the team collects sufficient data on the behavioral and biological changes in the insects, they intend to commercialize these new chemicals and bring them to market to protect humans, insects and our fragile ecosystem in a new and innovative way.
