IU researcher awarded two grants for work in abating mosquito-borne illnesses

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) recently awarded two multi-year grants to Molly Duman Scheel, associate professor of medical and molecular genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend, to assist her work in abating mosquito-borne illnesses in order to keep military personnel safe from viruses such as Zika and dengue fever.

The first grant is a three-year investigator initiated research award worth $1.1 million that aims to address mosquito populations through environmentally safe larvicides. The award will be shared with Nicole Achee, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame.

Scheel, along with Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health, developed a larvicide based off a novel class of insecticides called interfering RNA pesticides.

For the project, researchers will introduce speciality traps, called ovitraps, at a training facility in Belize that provide an adequate environment for mosquitoes to lay eggs in. Scheel’s larvicide will then be applied to naturally-developing pockets of water that develop within the traps.

Scheel also received a $750,000 grant from the Deployed War Fighter Protection (DWFP) Program to address adult mosquito abatement issues, specifically focusing on discovering pesticides that target both developing and adult mosquito populations.

The University of Notre Dame’s David Severson, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medicine Sciences in Thailand will partner with Scheel on the DWFP project.

“The interest the Department of Defense has in this project acknowledges the large number of military personnel, military support personnel and military family members who are deployed to areas where mosquito-borne illnesses are prevalent,” Scheel said. “Their exposure to Zika and dengue fever is ongoing. In the case of Zika, a troop’s potential to infect a spouse or partner is another level of concern.”