The Sexton Lab at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Investigating conflicting host pressures and genetic robustness in arboviruses

  • Lab gathering Spring 2025
    Sexton lab gathering Spring 2025
  • CAREMI Sexton, Pannier, Hebets
    CAREMI leaders celebrating a well deserved a award from Nebraska Cures to Dr. Angela Pannier!
  • Haleigh's graduation party - Sexton Lab
    Congratulations Haleigh!
  • Kenny Steen's mosquito art
    Mosquito Art by Kenny Steen
  • Culex mosquitoes Sexton lab
    Showing off our Culex colony.
  • NCV Retreat 2024
    NCV Retreat 2024
  • Learning lab techiniques
    Learning lab techniques
  • Sexton Lab lunch Fall 2024
    Sexton lab lunch Fall 2024
  • Sexton Lab lunch Summer 2024
    Sexton lab lunch Summer 2024
  • Sexton lab UNL arboviruses
    Sexton Lab

  • Hello and Welcome to the Laboratory of Nicole Sexton.

The Sexton lab is interested in all aspects of the interaction of viruses that must cycle between arthropod (generally mosquito and tick) and vertebrate (often human but also bird) hosts with their host environment. Questions being pursued in the Sexton lab seek to easy the burden of arthropod-borne viral infections through an understanding of viral survival mechanisms that allow for successful transmission from mosquitoes to humans. You can find out more about what we are currently doing in the associated pages. Thank you for your interest!

The Sexton Lab proud to be part of the Community for Arthropod Research, Education and Materials Innovation (CAREMI). To see the exciting transdisciplinary work facilitated by this group please visit the CAREMI website to learn more.

Nicole R. Sexton, PhD is an Assistant Professor at UNL in the School of Biological Sciences and the Nebraska Center for Virology.

Arboviruses are prevalent and persistent human health threats across the globe. Additionally, many arboviruses including Zika, chikungunya, Dengue, Japanese encephalitis, and Rift Valley fever viruses have emerged in new host species or geographical locations demonstrating an ability to adapt to new environments and host. However, what allows for the efficient spread of arboviruses despite high mutation rates, and what prevents some insect specific viruses from becoming infectious in vertebrates is not understood. Our research investigates mechanisms of efficient spread by arboviruses and virus traits associated with host preferences. In order to study these questions, our lab utilizes multi-tiered approaches to investigating host-virus interactions, including bioinformatics and computational comparisons, molecular biology, classical virology, mosquito infections, and high-throughput sequencing technologies.