Little brown bat with white-nose syndrome in Greeley Mine, Vermont.
Credit: Marvin Moriarty/USFWS
Service Announces Winner of National Prize Challenge to Defeat Bat-Killing Fungus
November 10, 2020
A team of six researchers from Oregon State University and the University of California have won a national prize challenge to combat white-nose syndrome, a lethal wildlife disease that has killed millions of bats in North America and pushed some native bat species to the brink of extinction. The winning team – Emily Dziedzic, Jenny Urbina Gonzalez, Jared LeBoldus, Michael Gordon, A. Marm Kilpatrick and Taal Levi – conceived of an aerosol spray to genetically silence the fungus that causes the disease without harming the bats, the places they hibernate, or other non-targeted organisms. The team will receive $20,000 for its proposal, which is intended to spur collaborations with scientists, designers and engineers to potentially bring the solution to life.
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