Background

Dr. Rutcharin Potiwat is Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Entomology. She received her B.Sc. in Biology from Khon Kaen University, M.Sc. in Genetic Engineering from Kasetsart University, and Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Chulalongkorn, University, Thailand. She holds a Diploma of Applied Parasitology and Entomology from Institute for Medical Research, Malaysia. Dr Rutcharin teaches students from the Diploma, M.Sc. and Ph.D. courses at the Bangkok School of Tropical Medicine in the topics related to medical entomology, insect cell line and virology.

Departments/Centers

• Medical Entomology

Research

Dr. Rutcharin is expert in medical entomology, with special focus on arboviruses, insect allergens, and vector-borne diseases such dengue, chikungunya virus coinfection, and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). She is also interested in bat ectoparasite (bedbugs and bat bugs) and other blood feeding insect from the lime stone bat cave. She found the bat bugs (Leptocimex inordinatus) that have not been reported in Thailand before. This ectoparasite are feed on bat and might be involved to zoonosis circulation and further transmission. She has a special interest in molecular identification of insect vectors and genetic engineering of mosquito vector. She has an experience in virus isolation and propagation using mosquito vectors such as Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, Ae. Scutellaris and Toxorhynchites splendens. She has applied this know-how for testing the Chimeric vaccination of dengue virus serotype 1 to 4. This testing was collaborated with the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and vaccine industries.

Ongoing Research Project(s)

Research Name	Funding Source
• The ability of Aedes scutellaris mosquito to support horizontal transmission of dengue virus in endemic area • ความสามารถของยุงลาย Aedes scutellaris ในการสนับสนุนการแพร่กระจายของเชื้อไวรัสเดงกี่ในพื้นที่ระบาดโรคไข้เลือดออก	ทุนคณะฯ