Coby Schal

Bio

Global urbanization is moving people into intimate associations with indoor arthropod pests, including bed bugs and cockroaches. 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 control. We are 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 indoors 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. 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. 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.

I have a B.S. from SUNY-Albany, a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, and post-doctoral training at the University of Massachusetts.