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Coby Schal
Professor
NC State
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
0000-0001-7195-6358
(919) 621-9126
https://schal-lab.cals.ncsu.edu/
Urbanization moves people into intimate associations with pests, including bed bugs, cockroaches, mosquitoes, sand flies, ticks, fleas, ants and termites. The mission of my lab is to understand the basic biology of insects that interact with and adversely affect people in residential and other structural environments (e.g., schools, hospitals, farm buildings) and to translate this knowledge into innovative environmental interventions, with emphasis on ecologically sound and sustainable pest management. My lab is especially interested in the direct and indirect impacts of household pests on human health through the allergens they produce, pathogenic microbes they vector, antibiotic resistance genes they disseminate, their resurgence due to insecticide resistance, the vast amounts of pesticides used to control them, and public policy related to indoor pests. Cockroaches are major etiological agents of allergic disease. A National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study showed that 37% of asthmatic children are allergic to cockroaches because of chronic exposure to them. Our research on allergens has elucidated the sources of cockroach allergens and their spatial and temporal distribution in cockroach-infested residential settings. Recent findings also consider pest-produced feces and frass as substrates for indoor microbes. We have developed intervention strategies that are being adopted to mitigate exposure of residents and school children to potentially harmful allergens and other biocontaminants.
- Chemistry (analytical)
- Community engagement
- Environmental fate and transport
- Epidemiology
- Metabolomics
- Microbiology
- Neuroscience
- Physiology
- Proteomics
- Behavior - insects
- Community engagement
- Electrophysiology
- HPLC, GC/MS
- Microinjection - other
- PCR
- PCR quantitative/real-time
- Bed bugs
- Cockroaches
- Moths
- Aeroallergens
- Antibiotics
- Microbial
- Pesticides
| Instrument | Purpose |
|---|---|
| GC-MS | Analytical chemistry |
| Electrophysiology | Electrophysiology |