AnoKin: Using genomics to estimate dispersal in malaria mosquitoes
Malaria remains the deadliest infectious disease in humans, and in recent years, progress towards elimination has stalled. Elimination will require developing new vector control tools and a complete understanding of mosquito population dynamics, yet we still do not understand how far malaria mosquitoes can disperse. This basic knowledge gap impedes research advances in our field; it obstructs the design of cluster-RCTs for new vector control tools, obscures estimates of gene drive spread, and limits our understanding of the spread of insecticide resistance.
This project will utilise genomics to quantify dispersal in the major malaria mosquito, Anopheles funestus. We will apply a novel technique, close-kin mark-recapture, in which we sequence the genomes of individuals, and then estimate kin to infer dispersal rates and distances. This will provide critical data to enhance and optimize vector control efforts.