National Cockroach Project

September 30 Wall Street Journal featured our National Cockroach Project (NCP) in an illustrated story “Why cockroaches stay in your neighborhood”. The National Cockroach team consists of PHE researcher Mark Stoeckle, Daniel Kronauer and Christoph von Beeren from The Rockefeller University Laboratory of Insect Social Evolution, and Joyce Xia, Hunter HIgh school senior and RU summer student. So far we’ve analyzed using DNA barcoding about 120 of 200 cockroaches collected by colleagues, friends, and family, or mailed in by citizen scientists around the country (including specimens from Australia and Spain). We found four distinct DNA barcode types that differ by NYC neighborhood. The WSJ story prompted an interview for Channel 4 TV news, complete with cockroach close-ups, and coverage in the London Times and US Metro.