Our latest work tracks the continued spread of Aedes albopictus 🦟in Iowa, now detected in at least 10 counties. Representing its northern range in the Midwest, this has broader implications for its continued spread in the US. academic.oup.com/jme/article/...

Continued range expansion of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Iowa, United States

Abstract. The mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) serves as a competent vector of several arboviruses, including dengue, chikungunya, an

academic.oup.com

Join us! We're hiring a Research Scientist to support projects on mosquito immunity and mosquito‑borne disease transmission. Ideal for a post‑bac or recent M.S. looking to gain experience in cutting-edge research in vector biology. isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IowaStateJob...

Mosquito Research Scientist

Position Title: Mosquito Research Scientist Job Group: Professional & Scientific Required Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree Preferred Qualifications: Proficiency in molecular biology techn...

isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

👀There will be a Keystone Symposium with a focus on Vector-Pathogen Interactions to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in February 2027. It should be a great meeting and hope to see you there! www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

Vector-Pathogen Interactions: From Vector Biology to Innovative Control Strategies | Keystone Symposia

Join us at the Keystone Symposia on Vector-Pathogen Interactions: From Vector Biology to Innovative Control Strategies, February 2027, in Geneva, with field leaders!

keystonesymposia.org

As a heads up, it is now required that your NIH biosketch be created using Sciencv. This can be tricky since ORCID must be linked to your MyNCBI account, and for many, including myself, multiple accounts may have to be merged by NIH support staff. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Our latest work involving the development of genetic markers for mosquito hemocytes and their characterization using spectral imaging flow cytometry. The result is an advanced characterization of mosquito immune cells and the foundation for building genetic tools. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Characterization of Anopheles gambiae immune cells through genetic and functional immunophenotyping - Nature Communications

Classification of mosquito hemocytes into subtypes has thus far relied on morphological properties. Here, the authors develop new genetic resources that facilitate the visualization and analysis of he...

nature.com

Pleased to share our recent work in collaboration with the @perrimonlab.bsky.social in which we perform the first genome-wide CRISPR knockout screen in Anopheles to examine essential fitness genes and genes associated with clodronate liposome function www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A genome-wide CRISPR screen in Anopheles mosquito cells identifies fitness and immune cell function-related genes

Nature Communications - Mosquitoes are major vectors for the transmission of many serious pathogens. This study uses genome-wide CRISPR screens in the mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, to reveal new...

nature.com

A genome-wide CRISPR knockout in a major malaria vector identifies genes important for fitness & immune-related processes @natcomms.nature.com @perrimonlab.bsky.social @iowastateu.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social @georgesaman.bsky.social @vectorimmunity.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to contribute to this beautiful study led by @yukihaba.bsky.social and @lindymcbr.bsky.social!

Yuki Haba@yukihaba.bsky.social · 9mo ago

How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities? Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation. 🧵(1/n) @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515

I'm happy that I could contribute even a small part to this fantastic and monumental study! Huge shoutout to @oliviagoldman.net @nadavshai.bsky.social and @leslievosshall.bsky.social for their incredible leadership in organizing this massive project!

Olivia Goldman PhD@oliviagoldman.net · 9mo ago

Excited to announce the final version of the Mosquito Cell Atlas is out now in @cellpress.bsky.social!! 🦟🩸 There is SO much left to find & investigate in this dataset (& the rich biology of the Aedes aegypti mosquito)! We hope this helps scientists in many fields! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Since my study section meeting was postponed, I am able to submit my own grant a few days earlier than expected. I just wish that my outlook for the entire system was better than at present.

David Hall & @vectorimmunity.bsky.social highlight @merklinglab.bsky.social & colleagues’ Cell Genomics article on #mosquito cellular responses in #midgut & #fatbody after #bloodfeeding. #Aedes #aegypti #scRNAseq #Metabolomics @iastateresearch.bsky.social‬ ‬ authors.elsevier.com/a/1lbEr5Eb1x...

Celebrating the holiday weekend with another bang! Our work describing roles of TNF signaling on mosquito immune cell function and in limiting malaria parasite infection is now published. Big shout out to @georgesaman.bsky.social and others for their contributions! journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

TNF signaling mediates cellular immune function and promotes malaria parasite killing in the mosquito Anopheles gambiae

Author summary Mosquito innate immunity is a major determinant of vector competence with significant implications in malaria transmission. During infection with the Plasmodium parasite, mosquitoes mou...

journals.plos.org

Despite all the shit going on, we have to celebrate our victories. New publication with @entomososwin.bsky.social and @vectorimmunity.bsky.social showing that hemocytes play a central role in disseminating flaviviruses to secondary tissues potentially functioning as a Trojan Horse(TBD) rdcu.be/euj4g

Mosquito immune cells enhance dengue and Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti

Nature Communications - Infection of mosquito immune cells by dengue and Zika virus enhances the spread of virus infection to mosquito tissues, such as the salivary glands, to promote virus...

rdcu.be

Excited to share our latest collaborative work with @entomososwin.bsky.social @brackneylab.bsky.social looking at the role of mosquito immune cells in virus infection. It turns out that these cells help disseminate virus infection, increasing the potential for virus transmission rdcu.be/euiZt

Mosquito immune cells enhance dengue and Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti

Nature Communications - Infection of mosquito immune cells by dengue and Zika virus enhances the spread of virus infection to mosquito tissues, such as the salivary glands, to promote virus...

rdcu.be

Heading out for a night of weirdness with the family

It's nice to start off your day with "We are delighted to accept your manuscript..."

It's the time of the year when a student can be genuinely excited about getting a D-. D's get degrees. Only the best and brightest are ready to hit the workforce!

This is a great explainer of just how much trouble NIH-funded scientists are about to be in. 😨

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · last yr.

New at Can We Still Govern: An anonymous NIH employee maps out the GOP budget gameplan to permanently gut our most important science agency. Impoundment, delay and red tape will create artificial "savings" that become the new benchmark for NIH budgets. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nih-bu...

Harvard redid its whole homepage to push back against the administration’s demands. I mean, this is just a website but I think it’s kind of a great PR move: www.harvard.edu

Harvard University

Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders who make a difference globally.

harvard.edu

Does anyone have recommendations for a preferably free or low-cost software platform for cloning, plasmid design, and curation for the lab. I "grew up" scientifically with VectorNTI. Is SnapGene the best current option? Any other alternatives that you might recommend?

a cartoon character from south park says please in front of a sign that says south park

ALT: a cartoon character from south park says please in front of a sign that says south park

media.tenor.com

The cost-saving claims don’t hold up. Every dollar in NIH research grants generates $2.46 in economic activity, research shows—a total of $93 billion in 2023 alone. “It’s incredible to me that we would give up this thing that has such obvious societal benefits,” says biologist Mark Peifer.

America will pay dearly for the NIH’s mindless war on wokeness and DEI

Colleges, businesses, patients, students, workers, and US excellence will all suffer—and for what?

motherjones.com

The biggest hit to extramural program staff appears to be grants management specialists (GMSs). It appears that 15-20% of GMSs were terminated. This is quite concerning since these folks have already missed essentially a month of getting-grants-out time and have lots to do. They already work hard.

kermit the frog has his hand on his mouth

ALT: kermit the frog has his hand on his mouth

media.tenor.com

🚨 We are recruiting for two post-doc positions!🚨 1) Development of genetic tools to study mosquito immune cells isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IowaStateJob... 2) Role of mosquito immune cells in immune recognition and priming isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IowaStateJob...

Excited to share that I officially received my first R01 today! It's been a long road, one marked by persistence and several grants that narrowly missed the payline. Now to do all of the exciting work that we proposed! I will be hiring, so be on the lookout for job postings!

Nice to see the influx of people moving onto this platform. Fingers crossed that we can develop something comparable to SciTwitter before Elon

New preprint from our collaboration with @perrimonlab.bsky.social in which we perform a genome-wide CRISPR screen in Anopheles to identify essential mosquito genes and examine clodronate liposome function. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A genome-wide CRISPR screen in Anopheles mosquito cells identifies essential genes and required components of clodronate liposome function

bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

biorxiv.org

🚨Mosquito/fly tweeps🚨 Does anyone know of an alternative to E-RNAi? I/we have used that platform to design dsRNAs for more than 15 years and it appears as though the URL is no longer available. Any help would be much appreciated! TIA!

a man is crying while laying on a couch and saying i 'm begging .

ALT: a man is crying while laying on a couch and saying i 'm begging .

media.tenor.com

Excited to be apart of this exciting work examining the role of hemocytes during arbovirus infection. Check it out now on bioRxiv. @vectorimmunity.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share our latest work! Together with @brackneylab.bsky.social and @entomososwin.bsky.social we demonstrate that mosquito immune cells act as "trojan horses" to help spread DENV and ZIKV infection from the midgut to other mosquito tissues! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Slowly emerging back into society after submitting two R01s