Rockies and High Plains Vector-borne Diseases Center Summer Internship

 Hello Everyone! My name is Karen Khaykin and I am a current MPH/DVM student at the Foy Lab. I am currently working on fulfilling my Capstone requirement for my MPH, which has driven me to join the West Nile Serosurveillance project. This is a joint project between RaHPVEC and CSPH aiming to evaluate the seroprevalence and seroincidence of WNV in Northern Colorado.  Personally, I have pretty limited experience with lab work. While I previously volunteered at the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab within the Parasitology section and gained experience in ELISAs and IFAs, I have never done cell culture or work with viruses, so I am super excited for the opportunity this summer. This week has been pretty slow as we have been waiting for IRB approval. However, I worked on creating some maps for neighborhoods we plan to canvas using QGIS, which I have never used before!  Next week, I am planning on coming in and learning how to do cell culture and creating viral stocks which I am absolu...

Hello everyone! My name is Matilda and I am an undergraduate from the University of New Mexico majoring in Environmental Science and minoring in Biology. I am currently planning on getting my degree in entomology after I receive my bachelor's and eventually continue working with mosquitoes in vector-borne disease control in New Mexico. I'm working in New Mexico with the City of Albuquerque's Environmental Health department who is collaborating with UNM to survey mosquito populations and test for both insecticide resistance and West Nile virus.  Cute photo of a mosquito larva under a microscope taken by one of my fellow interns These past few weeks have mostly been comprised of learning the protocols for trapping, collecting, identifying mosquitoes, and then vialing them to send off to UNM for disease testing. I've gotten to do so much so far that it's very difficult to pinpoint the highlights of what I've been up to, but here are a few of my favorite things I...

 Hi all, This week's work was primarily focused in finalizing the recruitment phase of our field study. I was out from Monday-Wednesday, so my contribution for this week was limited. We've found seven participants from neighborhood canvasing, and three others from personal connections. I went out again yesterday, and am hoping that we receive 1-2 more responses from that.  Currently, both clusters have sufficient participants, but there is a suboptimal distribution of them in one neighborhood. In order to ensure that the volatile pyrethroid does not affect its neighboring collection site, the houses must be sufficiently distanced. Additionally, there is a concern that mosquito populations would be shared between houses if they are too close. Although not ideal for our study, these problems should be mitigated by our latin square rotation.  We are nearing the time when we have to start collecting, so there may be little choice in whether this problem can be resolved. ...

 My first month working in the Saavedra lab as a part of the RaHP Vec Program has been filled with a lot of learning moments. I have had to learn how the insectary operates, how to identify mosquito species and sexes, and I have had to apply my coursework learning to lab procedures that are mostly new to me. My undergraduate coursework has prepared me well for the projects I am working on, but learning to apply this knowledge to real-world situations has been a new experience. Applications of everything from simple skills like dimensional analysis to molecular genetics, evolutionary modeling, and physiology have made my first month in the RaHP program not only interesting and exciting but also a good refresher on a lot of topics. When I first started a month ago, I was unsure of how to operate in the lab and the insectary, spent a good number of evenings reviewing lesser-understood topics, and needed a lot of help with learning how to do things. Now, a month later, I can work effic...

Hi everyone, I'll quickly introduce myself and describe my project in this post: I'm Anthony Wendling, a second year student at CSU studying biochemistry. I enjoy exercise and being outdoors. I'm working with Dr. Burton and Dr. Foy out of CVID (Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases) to test the efficacy of a volatile pyrethroid spacial emanator. I also work with in Dr. Rosenberg's lab where we study the effect of arboviruses on mosquito host transcriptional and genomic regulatory processes.  The pyrethroid study is my main focus for the RaHP VEC internship. We are hoping to determine whether the product is suitable for use in local communities. The planning has mostly been completed and we are currently recruiting residents to volunteer their backyards. Our recruitment strategy is based on informational flyers and going door to door within target neighborhoods. I designed the flyer and pamphlet that we are using, and have visited two target neighborhoods. I plan o...

  Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve shifted gears from lab work to preparing content for the Outreach Event Kit that I have been working on for the Kading Lab. I have been creating some informational content to bring to events, including brochures about West Nile Virus prevention and transmission, a mosquito species identification “cheat sheet” (inspired by Olivia and Isabelle), and a pinned mosquito collection. To shape my content to the specificity I wanted, Olivia taught me how to connect my laptop to one of our lab’s microscopes. Using the microscope software, I was able to photograph mosquito features that I wanted to include in my brochures and cheat sheet. I want to have a hands-on activity that will serve as both an engagement tool and a window for the public to see what it’s like to work in the lab. We have a traveling microscope that I plan to use it to give my audience a chance to identify mosquitoes themselves. I will set up some of my pinned mosquitoes under the micr...

 Hi everyone,     I thought it would be worthwhile to give an update about our results with the tick and understory project. We have come up with a final model: a zero-inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Model with a Conway-Maxwell Poisson distribution. This type of model helps with count data, where there are many zero values and some underdispersion. Underdispersion occurs when our observed data's variability is less than the mean or theoretical variability. The results tell us how ticks increase/decrease in abundance with given parameters, or how likely they are to be present/absent given similar parameters. This model ended up fitting the best with our data and gave some interesting results.     Concerning understory data, our models tell us that ticks are more abundant in areas with more flowering plants and more litter relative to other types of plants. The other important parameters were the time during the summer, altitude, and the distance from the trail....