disease vectors, microbiology

The Georgetown University biologist studies how climate change contributes to the emergence of new zoonotic threats.

Pregnant mosquito females deploy the microbe Elizabethkingia to speed larval growth; the larvae, in turn, help the bacteria outcompete other strains.

Scientists linked hamsters in a Hong Kong pet shop to 50 cases of the Delta variant in what appears to be the second documented occurrence of animals infecting people with SARS-CoV-2.

Cases of dengue were greatly reduced in areas of a city where Wolbachia-infected mosquitos were released, according to preliminary data from a field study.

Lab experiments and metagenomic analyses of flies’ resident bacteria indicate that the insects carry microbes from place to place on their legs.

Dengue virus has sophisticated mechanisms for entering a cell, for replicating its RNA genome, and for transcribing proteins.

Researchers engineer a bacterium that can arm the majority of the insect population with dengue resistance, and stop the virus’s spread to humans.

Mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, which fail to transmit the dengue virus, spread through the population when released in the wild.