Cameron Osborne - 2020 3MT 1st place — Transcript

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1. 0:08Cameron Osborne is our next presenter
2. 0:10tonight. He's originally from Fresno,
3. 0:12California and came to K-State to work
4. 0:15on his PhD in entomology. He enjoys
5. 0:18collecting and curating insects from
6. 0:19around Manhattan with the Popenoe
7. 0:22Entomology Club here at K-State. And in
8. 0:24the next 10 years, Cameron sees himself
9. 0:27combining his interest in teaching,
10. 0:29research, and outreach into a career in
11. 0:31academia with a focus on vector-borne
12. 0:34diseases. Would you please welcome
13. 0:36Cameron Osborne.
14. 0:38>> [applause and cheering]
15. 0:42>> Hi everyone. Thank you for coming out
16. 0:43today.
17. 0:45So, the insect you see up on the screen
18. 0:46is called a biting midge. And I gave
19. 0:48this female a glamour shot so that you
20. 0:50can see what she looks like up close and
21. 0:51personal. But you're way more likely to
22. 0:53find her in a swarm like this. To give
23. 0:56you some perspective of size, the number
24. 0:58of midges you see in that image could
25. 0:59easily fit onto the face of a quarter.
26. 1:01This is how they get the common name of
27. 1:03no-see-ums.
28. 1:04But despite their small stature, they
29. 1:06can pack a punch with their bite. Not
30. 1:08only because they're nuisance pests of
31. 1:09in uh humans and animals, but because
32. 1:11they can transmit diseases.
33. 1:13Specifically, livestock diseases like
34. 1:15viruses can be really detrimental to
35. 1:17herd health and animal trade and
36. 1:19movement, which can cost livestock
37. 1:21producers millions of dollars in
38. 1:22damages.
39. 1:23So, how do we control them currently? We
40. 1:25use insecticides and pesticides. But the
41. 1:27issue here is that they can have
42. 1:28off-target effects on beneficial
43. 1:30insects, and they can be incredibly
44. 1:33toxic in aquatic ecosystems, which
45. 1:35unfortunately is where these midges
46. 1:37reproduce. So, we're looking for a way
47. 1:39to better control these insects more
48. 1:40specifically and without all the
49. 1:42off-target effects.
50. 1:44And this is where it gets interesting.
51. 1:45So, these midges, like us, have an
52. 1:47immune system. They can detect a virus
53. 1:49by its genetic code, keep a piece of
54. 1:51that genetic code, and then kill the
55. 1:53virus every time they see it again.
56. 1:56What we can do as researchers is train
57. 1:57that immune system using genetic code
58. 1:59that we modify ourselves. But the trick
59. 2:02is that we make that genetic code look
60. 2:03exactly like the midge.
61. 2:05This in essence is creating an
62. 2:07autoimmune reaction inside of the midge
63. 2:09and causing the midge to kill itself.
64. 2:11This mechanism is called RNA
65. 2:13interference or RNAi and we've known
66. 2:15about it for about 20 years, but only in
67. 2:17the past few years have we started
68. 2:18exploring it as a pest control option.
69. 2:21The biggest hurdle here is that RNAi is
70. 2:23not the same in every type of insect. So
71. 2:26my research focuses on understanding
72. 2:28what the inefficiencies are in
73. 2:29Culicoides, these midges right here,
74. 2:31what sort of mechanisms we can use to
75. 2:33overcome these inefficiencies, and then
76. 2:35finding ways to effectively bring them
77. 2:36into the environment to control natural
78. 2:38populations.
79. 2:40So why RNAi in the first place? Well,
80. 2:42because we're using genetic code it's
81. 2:43incredibly specific, which means not
82. 2:45only could we target groups of insects,
83. 2:47but we can also get down to even the
84. 2:48species level in theory.
85. 2:50And because it's so specific, we also
86. 2:53don't expect the same off-target effects
87. 2:55on beneficial insects or in the aquatic
88. 2:57ecosystems like we would expect with
89. 2:59those pesticides.
90. 3:01And so ideally with my research I'll be
91. 3:03able to use these findings as a
92. 3:05framework for for other pest insects so
93. 3:08that we can start to better manage
94. 3:10numerous other pest insects of humans
95. 3:12and animals going forward.
96. 3:14And ultimately what that means for these
97. 3:16midges that transmit animal viruses is a
98. 3:18more stable livestock market for
99. 3:20livestock producers, which means less
100. 3:22cost for us as consumers, and also in
101. 3:24the case of these guys that are biting
102. 3:26us, it's going to be meaning less bites
103. 3:28for you and me. Thank you so much.
104. 3:31>> [applause]