Laboratory of Malaria & Vector Research

Barillas-Mury Research Group

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.

Photo of Barillas-Mury Research Group Members

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.

Credit: NIAID

Carolina Barillas-Mury, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research
Distinguished Investigator Head, Mosquito Immunity and Vector Competence Section

Contact: For contact information, search the NIH Enterprise Directory.

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.

Learn more about Carolina Barillas-Mury, M.D., Ph.D.

Carolina Barillas-Mury, M.D., Ph.D.

Stephanie Serafim de Carvalho, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)

Visiting Fellow

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Education:

Ph.D., 2020, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Languages Spoken: Portuguese

Our research interest is focused on the molecular mechanisms of mosquito immune priming. Oenocytes, are cells in the fat body that express high levels of double peroxidase (DBLOX), an enzyme essential for synthesis of a hemocyte differentiation factor (HDF) that enhances immunity in primed Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. Oenocytes numbers increase in response to Plasmodium infection and HDF...

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Portrait of Stephanie S. de Carvalho, Ph.D.

Octavio Talyuli Da Cunha (He/Him/His)

Ph.D. graduate student

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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.

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Portrait of Octavio Talyuli Da Cunha

Ana Beatriz B. Ferreira, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)

Research Fellow

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Languages Spoken: Portuguese

I am interested in understanding how hemocyte differentiation and cellular immune responses limit Plasmodium infection in mosquitoes.

Learn more about Ana Beatriz B. Ferreira, Ph.D.

Portrait of Ana Eatriz B. Ferreira, Ph.D.

Asher Kantor, Ph.D. (He/Him/His)

IRTA Postdoctoral Fellow

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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.

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Portrait of Asher Kantor, Ph.D.

Alvaro Molina-Cruz, Ph.D. (He/Him/His)

Associate Scientist

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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.

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Photo of Alvaro Molina

Banhisikha Saha, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)

Visiting Fellow

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Our goal is to elucidate the molecular mechanism of hemocyte mediated enhanced immune memory in mosquitoes previously challenged with Plasmodium infection.

Learn more about Banhisikha Saha, Ph.D.

Portrait of Banhisikia Saha Ph.D.

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

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