Biology of Vector-borne Diseases six-day training course, June 21-26, 2020

Mission

Create a knowledge network for a diverse community of practitioners that persists, grows and transforms science, and interventions for plant, animal and human vector-borne diseases.

Vision

Stimulate and enhance innovative research, collaborations, teaching and outreach in plant, animal and human vector-borne diseases through a cutting-edge and interactive annual course delivered by a core community of leading scientists.

Brief description of the course

The Center for Health in the Human Ecosystem hosts the annual Biology of Vector-borne Diseases six-day course. This course provides accessible, condensed training and "knowledge networking" for advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and professionals to ensure competency in basic biology, current trends and developments, and practical knowledge for U.S. and global vector-borne diseases of plants, animals and humans. We seek to train the next generation of scientists and help working professionals to more effectively address current and emerging threats with holistic approaches and a strong network of collaborators and mentors.

The course is both lecture- and discussion-based and is delivered by internationally recognized experts, with integrated case studies of emerging vector-borne pathogens to highlight parallels and key distinctions in biology across plant, animal and human vector-borne diseases. This course sets an example of new vision, through leadership of the Center for Health in the Human Ecosystem, to create an enduring community of participants and instructors to expand the impact and sustainability of these approaches.

The third annual Biology of Vector-borne Disease course is scheduled for Sunday through Friday, June 21-26, 2020. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance and invited to register for the course. The course registration fee (USD $1,500) includes housing, meals, course materials and social activities. Registration will be due following acceptance into the course.

Course themes and concepts include:

• Holarchy versus hierarchy — In the course, we are attempting to break down silos, to move people away from focusing on individual organisms, individual temporal and spatial scales of study and individual pathosystems as hierarchies, to seeing connections and parallels among these scales and systems as a “holarchy” of vector-borne diseases in complex systems.
• Decision-making — This occurs at many levels in vector-borne diseases. For example, hosts and vectors are subject to processes analogous to decision-making, researchers and practitioners are subjected to decision-making that is often constrained by the pathosystem of study and goals for management (e.g., pertaining to agriculture vs public health) and by the diagnostic tools available or selected.
• Networks — We want to create a “knowledge network” of researchers, trainees, and practitioners who look at plant, animal, and human vector-borne diseases more holistically. This is also a concept that we will solidify with talks that illustrate networks of biology across multiple scales in example vector-borne disease pathosystems.
• Communication — We can talk about host-vector communication, host-pathogen communication, communication among participants and instructors, communication among scientists, stakeholders and the public, and, perhaps most importantly, scientific communication across pathosystems that is enabled by breaking down barriers in vocabulary.
• Dynamics — Vector-borne disease pathosystems are incredibly dynamic and we seek to facilitate new ways of thinking about important distinctions, biological parallels and ecosystem drivers across plant, animal and human vector-borne diseases. This will enable a new generation of thinkers to respond more effectively to emergent, dynamic, complex phenomena with innovative and sustainable solutions.

Course instructors in 2019