The Mosquito Immunity and Vector Competence Section investigates the interactions between the mosquito immune system and Plasmodium parasites to understand how they affect malaria transmission.
Top Row (left to right): Anna Beatriz Ferreira, Research Fellow, Alvaro Molina-Cruz, Associate Scientist, Asher Kantor, IRTA Postdoctoral Fellow, Carolina Barillas-Mury, Distinguished Investigator, Octavio Talyuli, Ph.D. graduate student GPP program. Bottom Row (left to right): Jamie Smith, Postbac IRTA student, Stephanie S. de Carvalho, Visiting Fellow, Micah Young, Postbac IRTA student, Banhisikha Saha, Visiting Fellow, Shalyn Keiser, Postbac IRTA student.
Carolina Barillas-Mury, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research
Distinguished Investigator Head, Mosquito Immunity and Vector Competence Section
Education:
Ph.D., University of Arizona
M.D., Universidad Francisco Marroquin de Guatemala
B.S., Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
Dr. Barillas received her B.S. in biology from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala in 1981, her M.D. from Universidad Francisco Marroquín de Guatemala in 1985, and her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Arizona in 1992. From 1992 to 1993, she did postdoctoral training at the University of Arizona. She then went to Harvard University in 1994 and the European Molecular Lab until 1998. She was an assistant professor in the department of microbiology, immunology, and pathology at Colorado State University from 1998 to 2003. She joined the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research in 2003 and became a senior investigator in 2010.
Stephanie Serafim de Carvalho, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)
Visiting Fellow
Education:
Ph.D., 2020, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Languages Spoken: Portuguese
Octavio Talyuli Da Cunha (He/Him/His)
Ph.D. graduate student
Languages Spoken: Portuguese
I am interested in understanding how the mosquito immune system limits viral infection and how this affects transmission of arboviruses to humans. In other words, how mosquitoes mount an antiviral response and how this affects the vectorial capacity of different mosquito species.
Ana Beatriz B. Ferreira, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)
Research Fellow
Languages Spoken: Portuguese
I am interested in understanding how hemocyte differentiation and cellular immune responses limit Plasmodium infection in mosquitoes.
Asher Kantor, Ph.D. (He/Him/His)
IRTA Postdoctoral Fellow
Our research interests include virus-vector interactions and mosquito immune response to virus infection. Our current work focuses on the discovery of receptors that mediate dengue virus infection of mosquitoes.
Alvaro Molina-Cruz, Ph.D. (He/Him/His)
Associate Scientist
Languages Spoken: Spanish
My main area of research is the interaction between vector-borne pathogens and arthropod vectors, with the goal of generating novel transmission blocking strategies.
Banhisikha Saha, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)
Visiting Fellow
Our goal is to elucidate the molecular mechanism of hemocyte mediated enhanced immune memory in mosquitoes previously challenged with Plasmodium infection.
Former Research Group Members
Former Post-Doctoral Fellows
Dr. Yeon-Soo Han 1998-2003 Associate Professor and Department Head at Chonnam National University, Korea.
Dr. Alvaro Molina-Cruz 2003-2006 Promoted to LMVR Staff Scientist in September 2006.
Dr. Randall DeJong 2004-2006 Associate Professor at Calvin College, Michigan.
Dr. Sanjeev Kumar 2002-2008 Associate Professor, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Rajasthan, India
Dr. Lalita Gupta 2002-2008 Associate Professor, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Rajasthan, India
Dr. Rajnikant Dixit 2007-2010 Independent Researcher, National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), Delhi, India
Dr. Janneth Rodrigues 2006-2011 Scientist at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain
Dr. Giselle Oliveira 2009-2012 Visiting Researcher, Science without Borders Program, Rene Rachou Institute, Fiocruz, Brazil
Dr. Lindsey Garver 2009-2013 Senior Research Scientist, Vector and Parasite Biology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
Dr. Urvashi Ramphul 2012-2015 Senior Research Associate, Perrett Laver, London
Dr. Jose Luis Ramirez 2011-2015 Research Entomologist, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Preoria, Illinois
Dr. Julio Cesar Castillo 2013-2016 Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Jose Ribeiro’s Laboratory, LMVR, NIH
Dr. Caeul Lim 2016-2018 Scientific Editor at Trends/Cell Host & Microbe, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Dr. Nathani Trisnadi 2015-2018 Research Scientist, Atropos Therapeutics, San Carlos, California
Dr. Fabio M.Gomes 2014-2019 Assistant Professor, Parasitology Department, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Dr. Thiago Alves Silva 2015-2018 Post-Doctoral Fellow,
Dr. Joel Vega-Rodriguez, LMVR, NIH
Dr. Gaspar Canepa 2012-2020 Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA