Cole Meier is a postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University. He investigates the olfactory mechanisms driving mosquito repellency to optimize vector control strategies and combat deadly mosquito-borne diseases. In this Postdoc Portrait interview, he shares the importance of his work and what he hopes his research will accomplish.
Advancing Vector Control Through Olfactory Mechanisms
Q | What scientific problem are you trying to solve?
Mosquitoes transmit deadly diseases via their bites. To prevent these diseases, mosquito control approaches are often utilized, commonly relying on insecticide treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying to kill mosquitoes via contact-based toxicity. Although these approaches are often highly effective during their initial use, over time the development of resistance against these insecticides threatens the longevity of their protection. My work aims to develop novel spatial repellents that can be used alongside these contact-based approaches to synergistically protect against mosquito-borne diseases. By identifying the underlying olfactory mechanisms that drive spatial repellency against certain odors, I hope to develop highly targeted spatial repellents that enhance our current vector control strategies.
Q | What drew you to studying mosquito control strategies?
Studying mosquito control strategies has been the primary focus of my career because even incremental discoveries have the potential to compound into very meaningful advances that could directly benefit people struggling against mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes are highly complex organisms that persist in highly disparate environments—meaning that multi-modal approaches are generally required to maintain effective vector control. Often discipline-specific knowledge that spans subfields of mosquito biology and integrated pest management are required when developing effective strategies to reduce the burden of mosquito-borne disease. This has made my work feel highly additive regardless of whether I was investigating immunity, larvicides, or olfaction of mosquitoes, I have always felt that my research was compounding in pursuit of the greater goal to better understand and protect against the transmission of mosquito-borne disease.
What continues to motivate me is the opportunity to connect molecular discoveries with real-world health challenges. I am inspired by research that not only advances scientific knowledge but also has the potential to improve people's lives.
Q | What’s one thing you learned from your research that you didn’t expect?
To better understand how mosquitoes interpret and understand aversive olfactory cues, I have gained a much deeper appreciation for organismal sensory biology. It is often easy to think that other animals experience similar sensory cues to humans, because it is challenging to imagine otherwise, but it has been fascinating to take a closer look at the ways that animals experience the world differently. For example, I find it fascinating how mosquitoes are able to switch from a long-distance CO2-sensing mechanism to a more comprehensive host-sensing mechanism (which is a combination of CO2, volatile organic molecules, and heat) as they approach a potential host, or how fireflies have developed specialized pigments that act like sunglasses to block stray light and better locate the wavelength light produced by other fireflies, or how dogs have evolved specialized nostril anatomy that allows for continuous scent processing during inhalation and exhalation, relative to the strobe-style scent processing of humans. Learning about how different organisms experience the external world has been an exciting and unexpected benefit of this research topic.
Q | If your research succeeds, what could it change for science or society?
If I were to discover a highly effective spatial repellent that synergistically enhanced our current mosquito-control strategies, the benefits would be clear. There would be a reduced burden of mosquito-borne diseases in the areas that are effectively able to utilize this technology, and it would enhance the longevity of many insecticides (that would then serve as a secondary form of protection rather than the primary approach). There have been promising advances in spatial repellents with the use of transfluthrin, and ideally my research would build upon this success by uncovering other spatial repellents that can be synergistically utilized alongside transfluthrin. Furthermore, uncovering the fundamental mechanism that underlies the spatial repellency of these odors, could further optimize their use and development.
Q | What question are you most excited to answer next?
If I were to have identified a highly optimized spatial repellent and its associated mechanism, the next most critical set of questions would likely lie at the intersection between the technology and its use. A very important consideration for any mosquito-control strategy is the associated cost, delivery, use, and public perception in areas that are endemic to mosquito-borne diseases. These questions are equally as important, if not more so, as the effectiveness of the control strategy itself. For a technology to effectively protect communities against mosquito-borne diseases, it is crucial that the individuals in these communities have access, agency, and understanding over the benefits and limitations of said technology.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
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