CDVR
About the Center for Disease Vector Research
Working Towards an Environmental and Economic Solution
The Center for Disease Vector Research (CDVR), established in 2005 by Entomologist and Biochemist Alexander Raikhel as part of the UCR Institute for Integrative Genome Biology (IIGB), incorporates the most rapidly developing areas of biological research, such as genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and systems-based approaches, into vector biology. CDVR contains world-class scientists from the following units:
- Biology Department
- Botany and Plant Sciences Department
- Cell Biology and Neuroscience Department
- Entomology Department
- Plant Pathology and Microbiology Department
- Biomedical Sciences Division
- College of Engineering
Under current Director, Geneticist and Entomologist Peter Atkinson, researchers attempt to find new approaches to control the spread of plant and animal diseases vectored by arthropods1. Within California and the United States, insect-vectored disease continually threatens agriculture, especially in regions of moderate to high environmental stress. The Center for Disease Vector Research is dedicated to obtaining and maintaining an economically and environmentally viable agricultural industry by utilizing the knowledge of insect biology towards the control of insect pests in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner.
1arthropod: a large group of invertebrate animals with jointed legs, including insects, scoprions, crustaceans and spiders
Insects, including flies and mosquitoes, express odor receptor genes in olfactory neurons
on the antenna and maxillary palps. Scanning electron micrograph of a Drosophila (fruit fly) head overlaid with expression patterns of four odor receptors in the
antenna (blue, yellow, and magenta) and the maxillary palp (green).
Image: Anandasankar Ray, UCR Entomology. PLoS Cover Image, Vol (6)5 May 2008 issue.