Bio:
I recently joined the Dimopoulos lab as a postdoc in October
2008 after finishing my Ph.D. research at Colorado State
University. My research interests are vector-borne pathogens and
their interactions with the mosquito vector. 
Current research:
The mosquito immune system is predominantly devoted to
combating bacterial and fungal pathogens encountered in the
external environment and alimentary canal. Our lab has observed
that this antimicrobial response may play a role in
anti-malarial immunity as well. In experiments of
laboratory-raised mosquitoes, many Anopheles immune genes are
capable of modulating both bacterial and Plasmodium infection.
Also, the presence of gram-negative bacteria in mosquito midguts
may inhibit parasite infection and development.
We hypothesize that the mosquito innate immune response to
natural microbial exposure also determines the anti-Plasmodium
response and, therefore, susceptibility to malaria infection in
individual mosquitoes. My research focuses on microbial exposure
of field-collected mosquitoes and the potential anti-Plasmodium
effects of these bacteria. Much of this work will be performed
using bacteria isolated from A. arabiensis mosquitoes collected
in Macha, Zambia in January-February 2009.
Currently, we have isolated bacteria from colonized mosquitoes
that are kept at Johns Hopkins and in Zambia. Isolated bacteria
species differed depending on the mosquito source and tissue
used for isolation. We are determining the pathogenicity of
these bacteria following intrathoracic injection (Figure 1) or
bloodfeeding of different laboratory-established Anopheles
mosquito species. These bacteria will also be used to
investigate the impact of microbial exposure on both the
mosquito and the malaria parasite, and may allow for the
selection of the most relevant mosquito immune factors for
detailed molecular analyses and potential development of novel
malaria control strategies.
Figure 1. A. gambiae survival following intrathoracic
injection of mosquito-isolated bacteria. Mosquitoes were
injected with ~20,000 CFU of indicated bacteria and mortality
was monitored daily. Error bars represent the standard deviation
of three independent experiments.
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