About Us
Mosquito-borne viruses cause of diseases such as yellow fever, West Nile encephalitis, Zika, and dengue hemorrhagic fever, with hundreds of millions of people affected worldwide each year. While there are vast numbers of diverse mosquito species throughout the world, only a few select species are responsible for the majority of this continued transmission.
Research in my laboratory focuses on the genetics of the mosquito Aedes aegypti and related Aedes species. In very broad terms, we seek to understand how these mosquitoes are able to do all of the things they do to survive and serve as such good vectors of viral pathogens, and on using that knowledge to interrupt the transmission of these disease-causing viruses.
A unifying theme of my research program is the use of reverse genetic tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 to query a range of important physiological systems in Ae. aegypti. In addition to gene editing, members of my lab routinely use transcriptomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, virological, entomological and traditional molecular biological techniques to address critical questions in vector biology