Barry J. Beaty

Colorado State University


Primary Section: 61, Animal, Nutritional, and Applied Microbial Sciences
Secondary Section: 44, Microbial Biology
Membership Type:
Emeritus (elected 2001)

Biosketch

Barry Beaty is a University Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology of Colorado State University.  Dr. Beaty is a virologist recognized for his work arboviruses and other zoonotic viruses.  He is known particularly for his studies on dengue, yellow fever, and LaCrosse encephalitis virus and arbovirus interactions with and evolution in their mosquito vectors and for development of novel techniques and strategies for investigation, surveillance and control of emerging zoonotic viruses. Dr. Beaty was borne in Richland Center, WI.  Following military service, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin -La Crosse with a degree in biology and from the UW-Madison with a PhD in Epidemiology in 1976.  He was a postdoctoral fellow in virology at Yale University and joined the faculty in the Yale Arbovirus Research Unit.  He joined the faculty at Colorado State University in 1982.  He is a Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the American Academy of Microbiology and was elected to the National Academy of Science in 2001. 

Research Interests

Dr Beaty's laboratory focused upon the epidemic and evolutionary potential of arthropod-borne viruses, eg., dengue, yellow fever, mosquito-borne encephalitis viruses, and of other emerging zoonotic viruses, eg., rodent-borne hantaviruses.  Major research endeavors included developing rapid, clinically relevant diagnostic and surveillance techniques for arbovirus and zoonotic virus infections in vertebrate and invertebrate hosts; defining vector and viral genetic and molecular determinants of arbovirus transmission, transeasonality, and trafficking potential; applying molecular taxonomic and population genetic approaches to determine vector and virus genetic determinants of the epidemic and evolutionary potential of arboviruses, including epidemic dengue in Mexico; developing novel tools to identify and characterize mosquito genes of interest that condition important vector phenotypes including vector competence and insecticide resistance; and developing new control strategies and tools for control and study of vector borne and zoonotic diseases.  The latter have ranged from developing molecular mechanisms to transform mosquito vectors, engineering novel pathogen-resistant vector phenotypes, and developing drive mechanisms to anti-pathogen effector systems through vector populations to repurposing insecticide treated bednets to be used as curtains to control transmission of dengue viruses in domiciles (the Casa segura) in disease-endemic countries.

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