Marta Andrés de Miguel Principal Investigator
I am interested in studying fundamental aspects of the sensory biology of disease-transmitting mosquitoes than can be exploited to develop better mosquito control tools. I am a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at UCL Ear Institute in London.
I did my PhD at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) with Inmaculada Canal and Laura Torroja investigating the development of sensory organs Drosophila. I then joined the lab of Martin Goepfert at the University of Goettingen (Germany) as a postdoc to study the auditory system of disease-transmitting mosquitoes. I also worked as a research fellow in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology under the supervision of Walter Haas at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany to implement a molecular surveillance system for tuberculosis control. In 2017, I joined the lab of Joerg Albert at UCL as a Marie Curie fellow to investigate the biophysics of the malaria mosquito ear.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4369-2898
David Ellis Postdoc
I undertook my PhD in the laboratory of Jürg Bähler at UCL where I used various genome-wide and molecular biology approaches to study ageing populations of cells. During my first post-doc in the laboratories of Niki Windbichler and George Christophides at Imperial College, I helped develop anti-malarial synthetic gene-drive systems in mosquitoes.
Currently, I am working as a post-doc with Marta, trying to understand the role of different neuroactive molecules on the mosquito auditory efferent system - a neuronal system that has not been found in any other insect - and the way this impacts swarming behaviour. Having already had a taste of both the basic and the applied sciences, this project merges the two, allowing me to study the fascinating sensory biology of an important disease vector, and potentially identify control tools along the way.
Anya Suppermpool Postdoc
Anya completed her PhD in Jason Rihel's lab at UCL, where she developed genetic tools to visualize synapses in larval zebrafish to investigate how synapse dynamically change across behavioural states such as sleep and wake. Prior to that Anya has also worked with Steve Wilson's lab at UCL, where she investigated social behaviour and neurodevelopmental deficits in zebrafish models of Fragile X Syndrome. She has long been fascinated by how internal states modulate innate behaviours such as sleep, social, and mating behaviours. Currently in Marta’s lab, Anya is building transcriptomic atlas of the brain and ear across male and female mosquitoes. She hopes that this resource not only could shed light on the neuronal circuits underlying auditory-dependent mating behaviour but also provide a powerful tool into understand Anopheles gambiae neurobiology in general. Outside the lab, Anya enjoys playing football and kayaking down at Lee Valley.
anya.suppermpool.15@ucl.ac.uk
Elizabeth Morris PhD student
I am currently a PhD student in the London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training Program (LIDo). Prior to starting my PhD, I completed my MPH in 2021 at the Colorado School of Public Health. During my MPH, I developed a passion for vector-borne diseases, working in West Nile Virus control for Larimer county and as a data scientist for a Lyme disease foundation. My previous research has focused on community engaged vector control with one project updating maps of the distribution of Dermacentor ticks in Colorado using tick submissions from individuals around the state and another project modelling potential Aedes aegypti habitat in West Africa using data from the citizen science mobile phone app GLOBE Observer.
For my PhD, I am researching the molecular basis of swarming behavior in mosquitoes to better understand the vector that spreads malaria, Anopheles gambiae
elizabeth.freeman.21@ucl.ac.uk
Judy Bagi Technician
Judy’s first experience working with mosquitoes was during her BSc degree in Medical Genetics at Queen Mary, where she worked on transposable elements in Anopheles stephensi. She continued her studies in molecular entomology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where her MSc research project looked into the mechanisms of insecticide resistance of An. arabiensis and An. gambiae in Zanzibar. The combination of working in the field of molecular biology and addressing vital questions of vector control made her following technical post at LSTM very exciting.
Her goals of providing technical support and entomological husbandry resulted in another technical post working with bumblebees at Royal Holloway, where she aided research looking into pollinator viruses and their transmission. After completing her post at RHUL, she now works at UCL with Joerg Albert and Marta Andres, providing technical support in mosquito rearing, molecular work and general lab management, working towards vector population control from a new, less chemically invasive method. She is keen to continue her work in disease vectors and feels her career trajectory of molecular entomology will involve further work in developing mosquito management methods for the field.
Eve Doran Technician
My career in vector biology and parasitology began when I undertook an MSc in Molecular Biology of Parasites and Disease Vectors at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. After working as a research assistant in the Kaufman Lab at the University of Cambridge studying the MHC of chickens, I secured a PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine under the supervision of Dr Matt Rogers and Dr John Raynes. My project used molecular, cell and biochemical methods to investigate the role of human pentraxins in the Leishmania lifecycle within the sand fly vector. I am keen to continue studying and contribute to research into vectors of parasitic disease. Within the Mosquito Molecular Neuroscience Lab, I maintain a range of transgenic mosquito lines as well as using these for experimental work to study the effect of biogenic amines on mating behaviour.
eve.doran@ucl.ac.uk
