The main research focus of our laboratory is the development and exploitation of molecular tools to understand the complex biological interactions that occur between mosquitoes and infective organisms. The emphasis of the work is directed towards unraveling the physiological interplay between the Anopheles mosquito and the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, during its transit through the insect host.
The natural transmission of malaria requires completion of a complex developmental cycle in the midgut and the salivary glands of the mosquito vector. After gaining entry with the blood meal and beginning its development in the vector, the parasite, however, encounters the mosquito innate immune defence. In the major African vector, Anopheles gambiae, these defences can vary according to genetic polymorphisms that differentiate malaria susceptible from refractory strains.
        The research of the group encompasses many aspects of mosquito biology, including innate immunity against parasite and bacterial infection, population and evolutionary genetic analysis, large scale genomic and high-throughput expression analysis of infection, as well as the development of transgenic tools for functional gene analysis, both in the mosquito and the parasite.