Richard Bowen

My current interests focus on viral diseases that affect domestic and wild animals and spillover into human populations. Current projects include:

– Working to understand the pathogenesis of West Nile virus infection in domestic animals, birds and reptiles, and to develop and test vaccines to protect against that disease.
– Determining vertebrate and mosquito host competency for Japanese encephalitis, and elucidating the pathogenesis of infection in those creatures.
– Evaluating the potential role of bats in transmission of a number of viruses.
–Understanding the human-animal interface as it relates to transmission of avian influenza viruses.

I serve as Director of the Animal Models Core, and in the capacity supervise numerous trials to evaluate vaccines and therapeutics to protect against a broad range of pathogens.