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Coby Schal
Professor
NC State
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
0000-0001-7195-6358
(919) 515-1821
https://schal-lab.cals.ncsu.edu/
The mission of my lab is to understand the basic biology of insects that interact with and adversely affect people in indoor environments (e.g., homes, 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, their gut-originated microbial metabolites that modify the indoor microbiota, 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 and enteric disease. The prevalence and incidence of asthma have been rising at alarming rates and many emergency room admissions of adults and children with asthma are associated with cockroach allergens. A National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study showed that 37% of children are allergic to cockroaches because of chronic exposure. Other studies have confirmed that cockroach allergen level is a good predictor of repeated wheeze and asthma. Our research on allergens has elucidated the sources of cockroach allergens and their spatial and temporal distribution in cockroach-infested residential settings. Our recent projects have focused on cockroach- and bed bug-produced feces and frass as substrates for the proliferation of indoor microbes and dissemination of microbial toxins. We have developed intervention strategies that are being adopted to mitigate exposure of residents and school children to potentially harmful allergens and other bio-contaminants.
- Chemistry (analytical)
- Community engagement
- Environmental fate and transport
- Epidemiology
- Exposure assessment
- Instrumentation
- Metabolomics
- Microbiology
- Molecular biology
- Physiology
- Proteomics
- Policy Change
- Health Disparities
- Remediation
- Behavior - insects
- Community engagement
- Electrophysiology
- ELISA/RIA
- HPLC, GC/MS
- Omics - metabolome
- Omics - transcriptome
- PCR
- RNA isolation/quantitation
- Aeroallergens
- Air pollution
- Antibiotics
- Microbes/Antimicrobials
- Pesticides
| Instrument | Purpose |
|---|---|
| GCs and table top GC-MS | Analytical chemistry |