Insects of impact: Research helps bridge gap between insects and human health
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Media Contact: Sophia Fahleson | Digital Communications Specialist | 405-744-7063 | sophia.fahleson@okstate.edu
The hum of LED lights and the soft shuffle of microscope slides fill the entomology lab in the Oklahoma State University Noble Research Center. Students work intently, while Haobo Jiang moves through the room, offering guidance and sharing insights from the research he began in 1991.
Jiang, entomology and plant pathology professor at OSU, received his undergraduate degree from a university in Shanghai, China.
Jiang then moved to Kansas in 1991 to begin his graduate studies at Kansas State University, where his research on the tobacco hornworm began.
Jiang’s research is aimed at animal and human health improvement and agricultural pest control, he said.
“Nobody knows what’s going on inside an insect,” Jiang said. “If we understand the interactions that go on inside them, we can use the knowledge to control agricultural pests.”
The tobacco hornworm, while not directly related to human health, is the model system in entomology research, said Michael Kanost, professor at KSU and Jiang’s graduate professor in 1991.
“It’s easy to grow, and it’s big,” Kanost said. “The tobacco hornworm is the entomologist’s version of the mouse for research.”
In 2000, Jiang accepted a job in the OSU Ferguson College of Agriculture where he continued the research on the tobacco hornworm.
The research consists of studying the insect’s genetic makeup and what signals are sent during the wound healing and immune responses to infection in the caterpillar’s blood.
“Understanding these pathways is key,” Kanost said. “The proteins found in a hornworm’s blood can be the key to understanding insect-to-human disease transfer in other insects.”
The versatility of the tobacco hornworm’s genes and its body size allow the research to be used to understand more complex and smaller insects, such as mosquitoes or ticks, Jiang said.
“It’s the elephant in the insect kingdom,” Jiang said. “Let’s start by working on this big caterpillar and then work on something smaller.”
Not only are ticks and mosquitoes pests in the agricultural industry, but also these insects carry deadly diseases to humans and animals, Jiang said. Mosquitoes can carry malaria, parasites, and Dengue, Zika, yellow fever and West Nile viruses, while ticks can carry Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, Jiang said.
“Of course, mosquitoes are tiny,” Jiang said. “Therefore, you can only get a tiny amount of blood to study.”
By graphing and documenting the tobacco hornworm’s genetic makeup, Jiang and his lab team have made academic strides toward working directly on the smaller insects that cause consistent issues for the agricultural industry, he said.
“Understanding the relationship between the parasite and host is vital,” Jiang said. “We may be able to use this new knowledge to control these agricultural pests, and that’s just one thing we can gain.”
Although the desire to study mosquitoes is more prevalent in entomology, a researcher must start from somewhere, Jiang said.
“The knowledge from our basic biochemical research on a caterpillar was used to produce technology for a significant medical use,” Jiang said in part of his accepted grant proposal to the National Institute of General Medical Science.
The tobacco hornworm research continues to thrive because of the health impacts predicted by the results, Jiang said.
“NIGMS bought this theory because you need to start from the basics,” Jiang said. “Research needs to be built on a solid background, which is biochemistry. So, we can start there and build to other species.”
Although the tobacco hornworm research done by Jiang and his OSU team still needs time to continue to progress and expand, the concept that humans can be indirectly healed through caterpillar blood studies is possible, Jiang said.
“If smaller insects cannot be studied directly, we can study something that’s a bit of a long shot and still benefit,” Jiang said. “It is a very practical way to go toward what we need.”
Understanding this research from an outside perspective can be difficult, Jiang said. However, knowing the tangible solutions it can have on the agricultural industry is the reason behind his passion, he said.
Having worked with this same caterpillar species since 1991, Jiang has a genuine passion and love for finding ways to better human and animal health, he said.
“At this age, this is my destiny,” Jiang said.
Story by Allie Jo Owens | Cowboy Journal