Janelle Couret Lab

Dr. Janelle Couret

Dr. Couret is an Assistant Professor at the University of RI. Her lab focuses on vector-borne diseases, specifically arthropod vectors such as species of ticks that carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and certain species of mosquitoes that carry West Nile Virus.

Researching ticks is important because certain species of ticks such as Ixodes scapularis can carry the bacterial pathogen for Lyme disease known as Borrelia Burgdoferi. Dr. Couret's lab studies ways Ixodes scapularis interacts with its host tick and how it's presence can affect the tick's ability to survive and reproduce. This is important research because Lyme disease affects over 30,000 people a year who are newly diagnosed according to the CDC in the U.S. alone!

Dr. Couret typically has 4-5 undergraduates at a time. Some instruments and skills most commonly used are: statistical analysis, data management, PCR, DNA extraction, and live organism care and training and many more.

The major lab interests are:

The role of environmental factors such as temperature on both vector biology and vector-borne disease epidemiology.

To understand vector biology and ecology and vector-pathogen interactions in ticks and mosquitoes.

We test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses to better understand vector-microbe-host associations to understand the forces that shape these associations and their implications for the transmission of vector-borne disease.

Explore disease dynamics as they relate to climatic and anthropogenic changes for diseases such as Dengue, Eastern Encephalitis, and West Nile virus.

Best to contact through email: ncouret@uri.edu

Dr. Couret's lab also has it's own lab website that goes more in-depth into the specifics of their research and findings: http://www.vectorbiology.org/