Offered twice a year, the Global One Health Academy Graduate Travel Awards support graduate students for international or domestic travel that advances their global One Health-related research. Cole Butler, Ph.D. was a recipient of the Spring 2024 Graduate Travel Awards, where he traveled to Barcelona, Spain to attend the bi-annual Gordon Research Conference on Genetic Biocontrol. Learn more about Dr. Butler and how the Global One Health Academy helped support his research on theoretical biology to better understand insect pests and their effects on agriculture and public health through his spotlight below.
What do you study? What/who inspired you to pursue this field of study?
My research falls within the field of theoretical biology. The name “theoretical biology” tends to raise an eyebrow—this just means that I use quantitative tools to answer biological questions. More specifically, I use models to understand insect pests and their effects on agriculture and public health. The models I construct and analyze take different forms depending on the question I am trying to answer: I use statistical models to investigate relationships, computational models to make predictions, and mathematical models to explain dynamics.
A large chunk of my Ph.D. research is devoted to studying the potential of genetically engineered insects in pest control. Only in recent decades are scientists able to genetically modify insects in precise ways to reduce their impact on people, such as immunizing malaria-spreading mosquitoes. While these technologies are promising, it is important that we do our best to mitigate the likelihood of adverse outcomes, which is where my work comes in. Some of the questions I worked on can be summarized as follows: How would these genetic technologies perform in wild populations? How might these genetic technologies fail?
We are often unaware of the consequences of our actions to control pests, even in our own backyards! During my Ph.D., I also worked on understanding how human actions affect pest control, such as how patterns of insecticide resistance in North Carolina mosquitoes are predicted by neighborhood wealth. My interest in all this began with the many mosquito bites I suffered every Maine summer as a child. Combined with a natural affinity for mathematics, this led me to the wonderful field of theoretical biology. During my Ph.D., I cultivated a love of insects that has led me to my current work applying quantitative models to understand and manage pests. My greatest source of inspiration and support comes from my colleagues and mentors.
What are the implications of your research, and how does it fit into the One Health framework?
My work helps inform pest management strategies to most effectively benefit human health and economy while minimizing environmental consequences. Pest outbreaks are often due to a lack of understanding of natural systems. Indeed, it is easier for control efforts to focus on a single target organism and disregard the complex ecosystem to which it belongs. However, we are beginning to see how destructive this myopia can be, both to our health and the health of the environment. Models help address this by predicting control strategy performance, optimizing control parameters to improve management efficiency, and simulating hypothetical scenarios for more accurate risk analysis, to name only a few possible benefits.
How did GOHA’s support help advance your One Health related research?
I was very fortunate to receive a 2024 Graduate Travel Award, which allowed me to travel to Barcelona, Spain to attend the bi-annual Gordon Research Conference on Genetic Biocontrol. At this conference, I gave multiple poster and oral presentations on my work to an audience comprising the leading researchers in my field. Networking and discussing my ideas with colleagues allowed me to refine my research as I headed into my final year as a Ph.D., while also providing me with many new interesting questions to explore.
What are your future career plans? In what ways do you see your One Health experiences setting you up for success on this career path?
I hope to continue in academia as a researcher at the interface of mathematics and biology, using quantitative tools to understand the dynamics and control of insect pests. One Health’s mission has helped shape my research and has encouraged me to consider environmental health encompassing all organisms in an ecosystem when addressing issues related to pest management. This is no small undertaking and requires perspectives from different disciplines, so that in addition to the One Health mindset I apply to research problems, I also seek out interdisciplinary collaborations when formulating solutions.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
I love learning about the natural world, whether by computer simulation or working at a field site. Lately, this has taken the form of collecting and identifying mosquitoes of the Eastern United States, thanks to guidance from close friends and mentors!
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