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(01/2022)
Maria Luisa Simoe's manuscript on the
C-type lectin 4 implication in regulating
broad-spectrum melanization-based refractoriness
to malaria parasites
was accepted for publication in PLoS Biology. |
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(11/2021)
Johnny Nakhleh joins the Dimopoulos Group as a
postdoctoral fellow to study the implication of
mosquito complement-like system and c-type
lectins in anti-Plasmodium defenses.
Johnny earned his PhD from the American
University or Beirut, Lebanon in 2020. |
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(10/2021)
Alexandros Belavilas joins the Dimopoulos Group as a
Fulbright Scholar and visiting fellow to study the implication of
mosquito long non-coding RNAs in immunity and
reproduction. Alexandros is pursuing his PhD at
the University of Thessaly, Greece. |
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(10/2021)
Tanaya Sheth joins the Dimopoulos Group as a
ScM program graduate student to study the
implication of Wolbachia-induced genes
in anti-Plasmodium defenses. Tanaya earned her
BSc from the Ramnarian Ruia Autonomous College,
Mumbai, India in 2020. |
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(09/2021)
Shengzhang Dong's manuscript on the
Pleiotropic odorant-binding proteins that
promote Aedes aegypti reproduction and
flavivirus transmission was accepted for
publication in mBIO. |
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(10/2021)
Maria Luisa Simoes is relocating to London UK to assume her position as Assistant Professor at
the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine. For further information see:
https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/simoes.maria-luisa
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(09/2021)
Caire Barreto Vieira joins the Dimopoulos Group as a
postdoctoral fellow to study the permissiveness
of transgenic Anopheles strains to different
P. falciparum isolates. Caire earned his PhD from the
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil in 2021. |
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(09/2021)
Anastasia Accoti's manuscript on the discovery
of novel entomopathogenic fungi for
mosquito-borne disease control was published in
the journal Frontiers in Fungal Biology. |
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(09/2021)
Yesseinia Anglero-Rodriguez's and Chinmay
Tikhe's manuscript on dsRNA-mediated activation
of the Aedes aegypti Toll pathway in
endosomes was published in the journal of
Developmental and Comparative Immunology. |
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(08/2021)
Mahdiyeh Bigham joins the Dimopoulos Group as a
postdoctoral fellow, to study mosquito-pathogen
interactions and to develop field-deployable
qPCR-based assays for insecticide resistance
surveillance. Mahdiyeh was previously a
postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University,
Ithaca NY. |
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(08/2021)
Amanda Maldonado joins the Dimopoulos Group as a
technician to be involved in various studies
focusing on mosquito - microbe interactions.
Amanda earned her BSc from Johns Hopkins
University in 2021. |
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(06/2021)
Mihra Tavadia joins the Dimopoulos Group as a
Research Technologist to be involved in various
studies focusing on mosquito - pathogen
interactions and transgenesis. Mihra earned her
ScM from Johns Hopkins University in 2021. |
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(04/2021)
Cristiana Cuccurullo joins the Dimopoulos Group
as a postdoctoral fellow to develop and study
transgenic Anopheles strains that have
been engineered for resistance to Plasmodium
infection. Cristiana was previously a
postdoctoral fellow at the University of
California San Diego. |
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(04/2021)
Eric Caragata's manuscript on the microbial
diversity pf adult Aedes aegypti and
breeding water collected from different aquatic
environments in Puerto Rico was published in
Microbial Ecology journal. |
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(03/2021)
Victor Cardoso joins the Dimopoulos Group as a
postdoctoral fellow to study the implication of
mosquito hemocytes in immunity against human
pathogens such as the malaria parasite and
arboviruses. Victor earned his PhD from the
Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the
National Polytechnic Institute, Cuernavaca
Mexico in 2020. |
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(09/2020)
Natalie Rutkowski's manuscript was published in
Parasites & Vectors. Together with
Dr. Yuemei Dong she developed a
field-deployable molecular diagnostic platform
for the detection of arboviruses in mosquitoes.
She used the bCUBE device made by Hyris Ltd. |
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(09/2020)
Abhai Tripathi's manuscript on Plasmodium
falciparum gametocyte culturing and
mosquito infections through membrane feeding
was published in the Journal of Visual
Experimentation. |
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(07/2020)
Hannah MacLeod's manuscript was accepted for
publication in mBIO. She dissected the tropism
of Zika virus in Culex mosquitoes, and showed
that this is an incompatible vector-pathogen
system. Her work also established standardized
methodology for determining vector competence of
mosquitoes for arboviruses. |
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(07/2020)
Eric Caragata is relocating to Gainesville
Florida to assume his position as Assistant Professor at
the University of Florida, Medical Entomology
Laboratory. For further information see:
https://fmel.ifas.ufl.edu/faculty/eric-caragata/ |
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(04/2020)
Shengzhang Dong's manuscript was accepted for
publication in PLoS Pathogens. Together with
colleagues he identified several A. gambiae
miRNAs that regulate anti-Plasmodium
immunity. Shengzhang developed miRNA sponges
expressing transgenic mosquitoes that are
resistant to P. falciparum infection. |
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(03/2020)
Yuemei
Dong's manuscript was accepted for publication
in Science Advances. Together with Maria Luisa
Simoes she developed transgenic A. gambiae
mosquitoes that express multiple endogenous and
exogenous anti-Plasmodium effectors in
different tissue-compartments. These new
transgenic strains show elevated refractoriness
to P. falciparum. |
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(03/2020)
Eric Caragata and colleagues published a study in
Applied Environmental Microbiology on the
development of a non-live Chromobacterium
Csp_P -based larvicidal. The larvicidal
agent show high potency against both lab- and
field-derived Aedes mosquitoes. |
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(02/2020)
Anastasia Accoti joins the Dimopoulos
Group as a postdoctoral fellow, to study
entomopathogenic fungi and Aedes - Wolbachia
interactions. Anastasia earned
her PhD from the University of Perugia,
Italy, in 2019. |
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(11/2019)
Maria Luisa Simoes won the first prize of the
American Society of Tropical Medicine and
Hygiene (ASTMH) Young Investigator Award
competition, at the 2019 ASTMH meeting, for her
work on Anopheles C-type lectins. |
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(10/2019)
Mihra Tavadia joins the Dimopoulos
Group as an ScM student to study the Ae
aegypti RNAi pathway. |
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(09/2019)
Sayali Mulay
joins the Dimopoulos Group as an ScM student to
develop liquid culture fermentation methods for
the mosquitocidal Chromobacterium Csp_P. |
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(07/2019)
Cecilia
Springer Engdahl joins the Dimopoulos
Group as a postdoctoral fellow, to study the
mosquitocidal Cromobacterium Csp_P. Cecilia earned
her PhD from Umea University,
Sweden, in 2018.
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(06/2019)
Aliyah Silver joins the Dimopoulos Group
as a PhD program graduate student. Aliyah is
studying the Aedes RNAi pathway in
antiviral defense. |
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(01/2019)
George Dimopoulos gave a public Professorship
Lecture at the
National University of Singapore Society,
discussing the development of novel
mosquito-borne disease control strategies based
on genetically modified mosquitoes. |
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(08/2018)
Natalie Rutkowski joins the Dimopoulos
Group as a postbaccaureate scholar. Natalie
earned her BSc from the Loyola University,
Chicago, in 2018. |
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(03/2016)
George Dimopoulos was awarded the
Shikani/El Hibri Prize for Discovery &
Innovation.
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(05/2018)
Raul Saraiva published a study in PLoS Neglected
Tropical Diseases on the discovery and
characterization of a Chromobacterium-produced
anti-dengue virus protease. Raul showed that the
bacterium-produced protease is degrading the
virus capsid protein, thereby interfering with
host cell attachment. |
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(05/2018)
Sarah Short is relocating to Columbus Ohio to
assume up her position as Assistant Professor at
Ohio State University, Department of Entomology.
For further information see:
https://shortlab.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/home |
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(05/2018)
Sarah Short published a study in Scientific
Reports on how live Chromobacterium sp
Panama mediate larvicidal activity in the
breeding water. She showed that the
mosquitocidal bacterium transiently produces
cyanide at concentrations that are lethal to the
larvae. |
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(01/2019)
George Dimopoulos became a faculty inductee to
the Alpha Chapter of the
Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society.
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(04/2018)
Andrew Pike published a study in PLoS ONE on how
the transgenic blood meal -inducible expression
of the Anopheles IMD pathway
transcription factor REL2 influences mosquito
fitness, resistance to insecticides and
susceptibility to ONNV virus and Wolbachia
infection. |
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(04/2018)
Sarah Short published a study in Parasites &
Vectors on the fitness impact of
Chromobacterium sp Panama on mosquitoes.
She showed that the mosquitocidal bacterium
elicits xenobiotic responses and causes
transgenerational fitness effects. |
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(04/2018)
Raul Saraiva published a study in Scientific
Reports on the discovery and characterization of
a Chromobacterium-produced anti-Plasmodium
metabolite. Raul showed that the HDAC romidepsin
is mediating inhibition of Plasmodium
infection in the mosquito midgut tissue, as well
as in vitro. |
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(03/2018)
Yuemei Dong published a study in PLoS Pathogens
on the CRISPR/CAS9-mediated FREP1 gene knock-out in
Anopheles gambiae. The FREP1 gene
deletion results in a profound refractoriness to
Plasmodium infection. This study
represents the first Plasmodium host
factor knock-out in Anopheles. |
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(12/2017)
Yesseinia Anglero-Rodriguez published a study on
how the Talaromyces fungus modulates
susceptibility of Aedes aegypti to
dengue virus infection in eLIFE. The presence of
the fungus in the mosquito midgut results in a
general down-regulation of numerous mosquito
blood digestive enzyme genes. This results in a
greater susceptibility to the dengue virus. |
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(10/2017)
Maria Luisa Simoes was elected Student/Postdoc
representative of the American Committee of
Medical Entomology, and recieved the Award for
Advanced Training by the American Committee or
Molecular, Cellular and Immunoparasitology. |
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(10/2017)
Yesseinia Anglero-Rodriguez published a
comparative study on how the Aedes aegypti
mosquito responds to dengue and Zika virus
infection. She also linked key innate immune
pathways with the anti-Zika virus defense. The
study was published in Frontiers in
Microbiology. |
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(10/2017)
Maria Luisa Simoes published a study on the
functions of three key immunity genes in
Anophels gambiae and
A. albimanus; the c-type lectins CTL4
and CTLMA2 and the leucine-rich repeat protein
LRIM1. She showed that immune regulation of
Plasmodium by these genes is mosquito
species-specific and infection
intensity-dependent. The study was published in
mBIO. |
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(10/2017)
Chinmay V Tikhe joins the Dimopoulos Group
as a postdoctoral fellow. Chinmay earned his PhD
from the Louisiana State University,
USA, in 2017.
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(09/2017)
Andrew Pike published a study in Science on how
the modulation of the Anopheles stephensi
microbiota by transgenic immune activation
results in an altered mate preference. This, in
turn, favors the spread of the transgene in a
mixed cage population. This mechanism can
thereby function as a gene-drive in a cage
population. |
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(06/2017)
Sarah Short published a study in PLoS Neglected
Tropical Diseases on how amino acid metabolic
signaling influences the Aedes aegypti
midgut microbiome composition using a variety of
functional genomics analyses. |
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(09/2017)
Eric Caragata joins the Dimopoulos Group
as a postdoctoral fellow. Eric earned his PhD
from the University of Queensland,
Australia, in 2013 and pursued
postdoctoral training at the FIOCRUZ in Belo
Horizonte. |
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(04/2017)
Shengzhang Dong joins the Dimopoulos Group
as a postdoctoral fellow. Shengzhang earned his
PhD from Zhejiang University, China, in 2007 and
pursued postdoctoral training at the University
of Missouri. |
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(02/2017)
Natapong Jupatanakul published a study in PLoS
Neglected Tropical Diseases on the development
of JAK-STAT immune pathway boosted Aedes
aegypti mosquitoes. Transgenic expression
of the DOME or HOP genes in the fatbody tissue
after a blood-meal renders the mosquito more
resistant to dengue virus infection with a
minimal fitness cost. |
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(02/2017)
Maria Luisa Simoes published a study on the transgenic
expression of the anti-Plasmodium immune
factor FBN9 in Developmental and Comparative
Immunology. Carboxypeptidase promoter-driven
FBN9-expression in the midgut tissue after a
blood-meal renders the Anopheles gambiae
mosquito more less susceptible to Plasmodium
infection. |
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(10/2016)
Yesseinia Anglero-Rodriguez published a study on
how a Penicillium chrysogenum fungus
render Anopheles mosquitoes more
susceptible to Plasmodium infection
through a mechanism that implicate arginine
sequestration. Arginine is important for the
production of the anti-parasite metabolite
nitric oxide. The study was published in
Scientific reports. |
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(10/2016)
Raul Saraiva and Nathan Dennison published a study
in the Malaria Journal on how Enterobacter
Esp-Z inhibits Plasmodium
development in the mosquito midgut. Esp-Z produces
a factor that shits down the parasite's
oxidative defense system in addition to ROS
production. The combined effect of this is a
ROS-mediated inhibition of Plasmodium. |
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(03/2016)
George Dimopoulos became an elected fellow to
the
American Society of Microbiology.
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(10/2015)
Jenny
Carlson joined the team as a PD after graduating
from UC Davis where she studied the vector
competence of Culicine mosquitoes for bird
malaria. Jenny has extensive field entomology
expertise from her graduate work. In the
Dimopoulos group she will study the mosquito
microbiota and how it may cause a trans-stadial
immune priming. Jenny will also characterize the
larvicidal and mosquitocidal activity of
Csp_P in a semi-field facility in Zambia. |
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(05/2015)
Hannah MacLeod joined
the team as a PhD graduate student.
Hannah
earned her bachelor's degree
in Biology
from Northeastern University with a
concentration in Marine Biology. Prior to
joining JHSPH she studied hematology in Boston,
marine ecology in Panama and Washington state,
and immunology in San Francisco. Hannah is
studying the interaction between Culex
mosquitoes and Zika virus, and a bacterium-based
mosquitocidal.
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(05/2015)
Celia Demby joined
the team as a PhD graduate student.
Celia graduated with
a Distinction in Biochemistry from Syracuse
University, where she also did research.
She identified interneuron regulatory genes,
characterized expression of spinal cord
Ladybird Homeobox genes in
Zebrafish, and investigated their role in
interneuron specification. She is also a
co-founder of a charity, called Project Pikin,
in Sierra Leone for children orphaned by ebola. |
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(05/2015)
Maria Luisa Simoes joined the team as a PD after
graduating from the Inst. of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine in Lisbon. She also trained at
Imperial College London. During her PhD, Maria
Luisa elucidated the role of the Plasmodium
by-product hemozoin as an activator of Anopheles
immunity, through mediation of the
IMD pathway. She has also developed transgenic
mosquito lines for Plasmodium resistance.
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(03/2015)
Raul Saraiva spent 4
weeks with collaborators in Cali Colombia
studying Anopheles immunity to
Plasmodium vivax infection. The lack of a
method to culture this parasite species makes it
impossible to perform mosquito infections in our
laboratory. Colombia is endemic for P.
vivax, and parasite infected blood from
patients can be used to infect mosquitoes. His
visit was sponsored by an Emergent Biosolutions travel
fellowship. |
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(12/2014) Ben Blumberg and Andy
Pike successfully defended their thesis research
in December 2014, and are now a PhDs!, preparing
for new breakthroughs as a postdocs. Pike's
main project broadly focused on the effect of
trangenesis on mosquito fitness. Ben's project
focused on the mosquito microbiota and how it
influences the innate immune system and anti-Plasmodium
defense. |
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(11/2014)
Seokyoung Kang
was awarded a
JHMRI Postdoctoral fellowship to
study pathogen host factors. One of these
factors is a mosquito prefoldin that act as a
Plasmodium agonist. Seokyoung will
study the function of this prefoldin at the
mechanistic level, and investigate whether it
can be used for the development of malaria
transmission blocking strategies based on RNAi,
small molecules and vaccines. |
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(11/2014) Raul Saraiva was
awarded the
Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds "Stiftung
fur medizinische Grundlagenforschung" pre-doctoral fellowship. Raul studies
bacteria-produced metabolites that render
mosquitoes resistant to Plasmodium and
dengue virus. With this fellowship
Raul will identify and characterize an
Enterobacter-produced metabolite that
modulate Plasmodium sensitivity to
reactive oxygen species. |
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(11/2014) Sarah
Short was awarded the NIH
Ruth L
Kirchenstein NRSA Postdoctoral training
fellowship. The fellowship will enable Sarah to
study the Aedes aegypti microbiota, and
identify genes and pathways that are responsible
for differences in the microbial load of diverse
field mosquito populations. This project will
provide insights on determinants of
disease transmission since the microbiota influences
pathogen infection. |
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(11/2014)
Dimopoulos Group won the MMI department's
Halloween costume competition, 2014!! Can you
recognize the Draculas? Will we also win the
2015 competition? Let's see..... |
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(8/2014) Pike was
awarded a travel fellowship to perform
field research in Thailand, in
collaboration with
AFRIMS. He
studied anti-pathogen specificity of
immune pathways in the Thai vector
Anopheles dirus that transmit
Plasmodium vivax. |
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Course lecturers, from left to right:
Dr. Sarah Short (JHSPH)
Dr. George Dimopoulos (JHSPH)
Dr. Adelfa Serrano (UPR)
Dr. Roberto Barrera (CDC-PR) |
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(5/2014)
George and Sarah taught the first
Medical Entomology Course at the
University of Puerto Rico
Medical Sciences
Campus, as part of the Research
Centers at Minority Institutions (RCMI)
program. The course generated much
enthusiasm for vector research.
RCMI
News Letter. |
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