Owen Laboratory
WSU Department of Entomology
Why do some individuals get sick?
The work in my lab is directed toward understanding why we see variation in infectious disease among individuals in a population. We study disease systems involving arthropod-transmitted pathogens of wildlife, livestock and humans. We are currently focused on the role of the vertebrate immune system in shaping the population dynamics of blood feeding arthropods (vectors). This work interconnects immunogenetics, parasitology and disease ecology.