Current Research Interests

The primary goals of my research are to explore biochemical, physiological and genetic mechanisms associated with resistance to insecticides. Pharmacokinetic and electrophysiological assays are employed to determine the expression and stability of metabolic and target site resistance in populations of pest insects. The genetic regulation of enzymes responsible for detoxication of insecticides is being studied to facilitate development and use of insecticides that retain their activity against populations of insects in which metabolic cross-resistance has arisen.

Also being investigated are interrelationships between life history traits (e.g. migration and host-plant feeding) and insecticide resistance. Information obtained from these studies provides a greater understanding of how expression of insecticide resistance alters insect biology, and may allow synthesis and deployment of chemicals with "anti-resistant" properties to be realized.

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