DoD-funded research at Kansas State University focuses on disease prevention

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) recently provided a three-year grant to Kansas State University (KSU) for the development of a tool used to assess infection risk and implementing prevention efforts.

Led by KSU professor Caterina Scoglio, PICTUREE: Predicting Insect Contact and Transmission using histoRical Entomological and Environmental Data will shift focus from the more traditional approach, working toward prevention rather than reaction. Researchers will create a computer program to help planners optimize the use of provisions and other resources based on the estimated risk for insect and spider-transmitted pathogens.

“Using big data, we will develop a decision support platform to assess three risk levels — high, medium and low — of these mosquito-transmitted pathogens, and their current and future outbreak risk at different places around the globe,” Scoglio said.

With $868,000 from the DoD, the research is also supported by partners from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Mosquito and Fly Research Unit, Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, and the Army Public Health Center. Participants also include three KSU doctoral students, a software developer, and Lee Cohnstaedt, a research entomologist with the USDA-Arthropod-borne Animal Diseases Research Unit.

If successful, the research could prove useful against the spread of diseases like Zika virus and dengue fever.