PBS Faculty Office: 331

Research Areas:
Parasitology/Medical Entomology
Mosquito-Parasite Interaction and Pathogenesis
Lower Eukaryotic Molecular Biology

Research Description:

Parasitology/Medical Entomology, Mosquito-Parasite Interactions and Pathogenesis, Mosquito Innate Immunity, Epidemiology of Mosquito-borne Diseases.  Mosquito-borne diseases, including malaria, lymphatic filariasis and numerous arboviruses cause morbidity and mortality in hundreds of millions of people throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Traditional control methods are becoming increasingly less effective; consequently, there is a concerted effort to develop new control strategies, aimed at the mosquito vector, which might be used to disrupt pathogen transmission and reduce the severity of disease. In order to realize success in this area it is imperative that we gain a better understanding of those factors that influence compatibility and incompatibility between a mosquito and the pathogen it transmits. Our laboratory employs various biochemical, genetic, cellular and molecular techniques in efforts to better understand how a particular mosquito species initiates an immune response capable of killing an ingested pathogen and, likewise, how certain parasites are capable of overcoming this response and developing to the infective stage. We maintain and employ the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti, Ae. triseriatus, Ae. albopictus, Armigeres subalbatus, Culex pipiens, and Cx. quinquefasciatus, the filarial worms Brugia malayi, B. pahangi, and Dirofilaria immitis, the malaria parasite Plasmodium gallinaceum in these studies. Of primary interest are investigations of (1) the melanotic encapsulation immune response of mosquitoes against filarial worms, (2) cellular aspects of the innate immune response of mosquitoes, with special emphasis on evaluation of the transcriptome of phagocytosing hemocytes, (3) the biochemical characterization and genetic regulation of chitin synthesis during peritrophic membrane formation in the midgut of mosquitoes and how this might play a role in vector competence, and (4) clarifying the role mosquito immunity plays in vector competence and the epidemiology of Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit both Wuchereria bancrofti and malaria parasites to humans in Papua New Guinea.  To effectively conduct these studies, our laboratory maintains active collaboration with research groups at Iowa State University, Virginia Tech, and UW- Oshkosh, and with universities and research institutions in Egypt, Papua New Guinea, and Taiwan.

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