Bridging Laboratory and Field Research for Genetic Control of Disease Vectors

Proceedings of the joint WHO/TDR, NIAID, IAEA and Frontis Workshop on Bridging Laboratory and Field Research for Genetic Control of Disease Vectors
Nairobi, Kenya 14-16 July 2004

Editors:
B.G.J. Knols
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Seibersdorf, Austria
Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands

C. Louis
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Series editor:
R.J. Bogers
Frontis – Wageningen International Nucleus for Strategic Expertise
Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands

About the book | Table of Contents

Contemporary research on genetic control of disease-transmitting insects knows two kinds of scientists: those that work in the laboratory and those known as ‘field people’. Over the last decade, both groups seem to have developed differing research priorities, address fundamentally different aspects within the overall discipline of infectious-disease control, and worse, have developed a scientific ‘language’ that is no longer understood by the ‘other’ party. This gap widens every day, between the North and the South, between ecologists and molecular biologists, geneticists and behaviourists, etc. The need to develop a common research agenda that bridges this gap has been identified as a top priority by all parties involved. Only then shall the goal of developing appropriate genetic-control strategies for vectors of disease become reality.

This book is the reflection of a workshop, held in Nairobi (Kenya) in July 2004, that addressed the above issues. It brought together a good representation of both the molecular and ecological research disciplines and, for the first time, included a significant number of researchers from disease-endemic countries. The research agenda presented here will serve the research and science-policy communities alike, and guide sponsoring organizations with the selection of priority areas for research funding.

Click here for printed version of the Wageningen UR Frontis Series,
available from Springer Science+Business Media (former Kluwer Academic Publishers)