There was a special seminar at LSTM this week with a presentation by Grant Hughes, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. His seminar was entitled: Microbial symbionts for control of mosquito-borne disease, and was introduced by LSTM’s Professor Mark Taylor.
He talked through his various areas of research focussing on the potential role of Wolbachia for malaria control and the further research that needs to be carried out to evaluate its impact against all human plasmodium parasites. He looked at how Wolbachia blocks the only virus that the Anopheles mosquito is capable of carrying, O’nyong’nyong.
Dr Hughes also talked through some of his current area of research, the tripartite interaction between microbiome, field caught Aedes aegypti and the Zika virus, and the fact that bacterial delivery of RNAi appears feasible for the inhibition of Zika within the mosquito.
You can watch the whole seminar here.