As a member of the Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases (CVID) at Colorado State University, the Foy laboratory focuses on the interactions of vectors with their hosts and with vector pathogens. The goal is to link research employing molecular, proteomic and genomic techniques to practical applications for controlling arthropod-borne diseases. A main research component in the Foy lab is to interrupt the intense transmission of malaria and arboviruses by targeting the vector through their bloodmeals using drugs that attack vector physiology and that inhibit pathogen development or using anti-vector immunity driven by vaccination. The Foy lab is also developing mosquitoes and other vectors as biosurveillance tools, studying unique aspects of arbovirus transmission and arbovirus survival in vectors, and studying poorly understood mosquito pathogens for their prospects to become vector-borne disease control tools.
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Brian Foyand his colleagues may have hit upon a way to dramatically reduce the spread of West Nile virus by using ivermectin to turn hungry birds into passive assassins.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis and Colorado State University have found evidence that adding ivermectin to backyard bird feeders has potential to reduce local transmission of West Nile virus in the U.S.
Brian Foy has been studying ivermectin for nearly a decade, long before it became a hot topic in the United States.
contact information
Office: Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases room 168
(970) 491-3470
brian.foy@colostate.edu