In the future, mosquito-borne diseases may have a less significant incidence.

For his research in genetics, Fred Gould, a professor of entomology at N.C . State, received the 2012 UNC system’s O. Max Gardner Award, given to those who have made great contributions to human welfare. He is the fifth faculty member at the University to win the award since 2003.

Gould’s research, while initially focused on agriculture, now revolves around applied evolutionary biology, a study involving the alteration of genes in a species to change how they react or adapt.

“There’s a genetic basis to all of these things,” Gould said. “There’s basically selection to being more fit, so that’s what insects do. So when people develop crops that have resistance, due to the common chemicals that are in your spices and other things…we try to come up with approaches to make it harder for the pests to adapt.”

While Gould’s team did not develop the crops, they did find ways to improve the agricultural process.

“When transgenic crops came out that had this toxin from a bacteria in it, we developed ways that could slow the rate at which pests could adapt, and the EPA picked up on this and that’s how crops are being grown right now,” Gould said. “Crops that slow down the evolutionary process.”

This method is being used internationally in China and India and is part of the reason why Gould received the award.

More recently however, Gould has turned the focus of his research on genetic pest management and disease control.

“We’re very specifically interested in insects that transmit dengue virus,” Gould said. “We take a mosquito that doesn’t transmit the virus and move those genes… so we get rid of the disease.”

Gould will use what is called a selfish gene. When it comes time to release the mosquitoes, the selfish genes will be more likely to appear in the offspring of the mosquitoes, with a rate of up to 90 percent, decreasing the likelihood that later generations will carry the ability for disease transmission.

In addition to his own research, Gould is leading the development of an interdisciplinary graduate program, which is drawing students from multiple areas involved with the project. The program has received a five-year grant.

William Klobasa, graduate student in entomology, and Amanda Clayton, graduate student in economics and anthropology, are two of the six students in the first cohort group. Other students involved are in English and biomathematics.

“There’s been insect driven diseases that have wiped out populations over the course of history,” Clayton said. “I mean, now malaria has vaccines and medicines, but before it had that, this could be a potential, once you set up this technology…it has the potential to solve many future disease issues.”

The students will be traveling to Peru this summer, and while much of the details of the student involvement are in the works, Clayton and Klobasa are interested in seeing what this work can do in the future.

“I think it’s a system that you could extrapolate…It’s just a really huge problem,” Klobasa said. “The United States is fortunate that we don’t have to be [concerned] with dengue and yellow fever. In the future, it can have lots of different applications as well.”

Following the research on mosquitoes and dengue virus, the next group of graduate students in Gould’s program could be working on the development of transgenic mice to help maintain biodiversity by reducing the population of invasive species.

While winning the award was a surprise for Gould, he hopes the recognition will allow more people to become aware of the needs for continued research in applied evolutionary biology and how it can help the world.

“There’s a need for people who understand what this is about and to take a look at what the details are,” Gould said.