Phase II IUCRC at University of Florida: Center for Arthropod Management Technologies

开发新的害虫管理方法对于为不断增加的人口生产足够的食物以及预防节肢动物传播的植物和人类疾病至关重要。随着气候条件的变化，害虫分布更加广泛，这加剧了对新的害虫管理工具的需求。与节肢动物和线虫活动相关的经济损失是社会的重大负担，既包括农业损失，也包括人类健康成本。节肢动物管理技术中心（CAMTech）致力于解决限制对影响农业和人类健康的主要昆虫和线虫害虫进行有效管理的问题。该中心解决了对特定知识和研究工具的需求，以加快行业合作伙伴向市场提供害虫管理解决方案，并调查新方法和现有害虫抑制方法的扩展。农业生物技术和城市害虫管理行业在这一领域的主要局限性是共同的，并限制了在某些系统中证明有效的战略的广泛采用。该中心通过最先进的技术，工业相关的研究和培养研究生和博士后研究人员，包括代表性不足的群体，促进该领域的持续发展。CAMTech是学术界，政府和工业界之间创新，跨学科研究活动的平台。该中心使用先进的方法进行对工业部门至关重要的非竞争性研究，如下一代测序和组学，共聚焦显微镜，RNA干扰和基因组编辑。佛罗里达大学拥有美国最大的昆虫学和线虫学系，包括昆虫生理学和毒理学、微生物学、抗性管理、害虫综合管理和农业线虫学。佛罗里达大学的参与者与非常多样化的农业和各种各样的城市和公共卫生重要性的害虫一起工作。这种多样性是由于佛罗里达有大量的入侵物种，加上亚热带气候有利于害虫种群。农业生物技术和人类健康领域的行业研究需求与大学参与者的专业知识保持一致，为农业可持续发展和公共福利提供快速发展的害虫管理解决方案。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The development of new pest management approaches is critical for the production of sufficient food for the increasing human population, and for prevention of arthropod-transmitted disease to plants and humans. The more widespread pest distribution associated with changing climatic conditions exacerbates the need for new pest management tools. The economic losses associated with the activities of arthropods and nematodes are a significant burden to society through both agricultural losses and human health costs. The Center for Arthropod Management Technologies (CAMTech) addresses issues that limit effective management of the major insect and nematode pests that impact agriculture and human health. The center addresses the need for specific knowledge and research tools to expedite delivery of pest management solutions by industry partners to the marketplace, and to investigate both new approaches, and expansion of existing approaches for pest suppression. The major limitations in the field are common to the agricultural biotechnology and urban pest management industries and restrict widespread adoption of strategies shown to be effective in some systems. The center contributes key advances through state of the art, industrially relevant research and by training of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers including underrepresented groups, toward continued advancement of the field. CAMTech serves as a platform for innovative, interdisciplinary research activities at the interface of academia, government, and industry. The center conducts non-competitive research of crucial importance to the industrial sector using advanced methods such as next-generation sequencing and -omics, confocal microscopy, RNA interference and genome editing. Research expertise at the University of Florida site, which has the largest entomology and nematology department in the U.S., includes insect physiology and toxicology, microbiology, resistance management, integrated pest management and agricultural nematology. University of Florida participants work with a very diverse agriculture and a diverse range of pests of urban and public health importance. This diversity results from the large number of invasive species in Florida combined with the sub-tropical climate that favors pest populations. The research needs of industries in the agricultural biotechnology and human health domains align well with the expertise of university participants providing for the expedited development of pest management solutions to the benefit of agricultural sustainability and to public wellbeing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.