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Since the beginning of the project in April 2012, our lab has screened a wide array of plant essential oils for baseline toxicity and in combination with various synthetic pyrethroids against Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, and Anopheles gambiae, the African malaria mosquito. To date, we have identified essential oil candidates that enhance the toxicity of various synthetic pyrethroids, and some that cause greater enhancement than the most commonly used commercial synergist in synthetic pyrethroid formulations, piperonyl butoxide (PBO).

Octopamine and tyramine are essential biogenic amines that have been implicated in numerous physiological systems in arthropod species, such as reproduction, the nervous system, and  learning-and-memory, to name a few. We have successfully created two stably-transfected Chinese Hamster Ovary cell lines (CHO) with a functional octopamine receptor from Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach, and a functional tyramine receptor from Rhipicephalus microplus, the southern cattle tick.