Local scientist honoured for groundbreaking mosquito research
Susan McIver of Summerland has been selected by the Kavli Neural Systems Institute at Rockefeller University as the first Founder’s Day Award recipient.
The award is for McIver’s pioneering scientific research on mosquito neurobiology.
A private graduate university in New York City, Rockefeller is the oldest biomedical research institute in the United States.
As of October 2019, a total of 36 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university.
Director of the neural systems institute Leslie Vosshall wrote in her invitation to McIver that she is pleased, “to meet the giants in the field — like you — who have greatly influenced our own research program in mosquito neurobiology,”
McIver’s research on mosquitoes began in 1964 with her PhD at Washington State University and continued until 1984 during which time she was a professor at the University of Toronto with appointments to the Faculty of Medicine.
“My work focused on how mosquitoes discriminate between hosts for a blood meal and the sensory basis for doing so. What is it that makes some mosquitoes bite birds and other reptiles or mammals? And why do human-biting mosquitoes like some people more than others?” McIver said.
She and her laboratory group determined the numbers and types of hair and peg-like sensory receptors, primarily on the antennae, and compared the results among species of mosquitoes attracted to different hosts.
Through a series of elegant electron microscopic studies McIver’s lab revealed the fine structure of the receptors with special reference to the number of nerve cells associated with each type and initiated studies on how the nerve cells are organized in the brain.
Using cutting-edge technologies spanning neurobiology, behaviour, genetics and genomics, Vosshall’s lab at Rockefeller is providing sophisticated answers to the same questions about the mode of action of attractants and repellents studied by McIver.
The award will be presented in New York City at a yet-to-be determined date.
Mosquitoes transmit deadly infectious disease to humans around the world and understanding the rules by which these insects target human hosts will enable the development of tools, including genetic manipulations, to reduce their ability to spread disease.
Of concern to Canadians is exposure to dengue, malaria and Zika virus in other countries and West Nile and equine encephalitis viruses at home.
McIver was chair of the Department of Environmental Biology at the University of Guelph before relocating to British Columbia where she served as a community coroner.
She has authored two books on medical errors and patient safety.
Written in collaboration with Robin Wyndham, After the Error: Speaking Out About Patient Safety to Save Lives, won an international award in health and medicine.
McIver has also written widely in the popular press, including the Penticton Herald. Her Inside Agriculture column ran from 1998 to 2018 during which time she also reported on municipal and local affairs in Summerland.