Environmental and Agricultural Physiology

Our curiosity about invertebrate energetics and its relationship to geographic distribution, evolutionary history or ecological interactions has been a chronic driver to the innovators of Sable's instrumentation, where the smallest signal from the animal demands that it be measured with acute resolution. Like entomologists, comparative physiologists, ecologists and biomedical researchers worldwide, we have a multitude of questions and a variety of solutions developed to address those questions.

Insects as Disease Vectors

Malaria, Dengue Fever, Chagas disease and West Nile Virus are a few well known pathogens transferred to human populations from insects. By assessing physiological traits of thermal tolerance and water balance or response to variation in the concentration of oxygen and carbon dioxide, it is possible to reveal and understand the factors that limit or enhance insect fitness and to develop pest management strategies to mitigate the spread of disease.

Insects as Models of Disease

The common fruit-fly, Drosophila melanogaster, holds promise for enhanced understanding of highly conserved disease pathways shared by both flies and humans. Calorimetry or small insect respirometry can be and effective tool in drug screening, testing hypotheses from in-vitro, small molecule research on an intact fully functioning organism.

Sable respirometry systems enable highest resolution metabolic measurement, and the study and control of thermal range and atmospheric gas concentrations, including water vapor. Systems are available in field or lab configurations, using real-time flowthrough respirometry or constant-volume, stop flow methods.