Dr. Bob Hancock

As an authority on mosquitoes, bedbugs and other blood-sucking insects, I have authored many scholarly articles on their behavior and physiology (see selected publications below). My current focus is on the relationships between larval and adult nutrition and adult “performance” of Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitos (together, these species are the principle global vectors of Dengue, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya and Zika viruses). For females, performance is measured by their success in finding and successfully taking a reproductive blood meal that is used to develop eggs. For males, performance is measured by their success in finding and successfully inseminating females. The work is multifaceted as it involves mosquito rearing, microdissections, cage experiments, and olfactor/flight-tunnel studies.

Most of my MSU Denver research is conducted in an awesome “Mosquito Lab” in the Auraria Science Building where I maintain several different species of mosquitoes. During any given semester I typically have 6-10 MSU Denver students working in this lab.  They raise mosquitoes and perform experiments and analyze data. Many Hancock lab students also work in Mosquito Control during the summer. All of them present their novel research findings at local (the MSU Denver Undergraduate Research Conference), regional, and/or national scientific conferences. Some have graduated and gone on to salaried jobs in Mosquito Control and others have gone to graduate/professional school.