Mosquitoes: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Lahondère and Vinauger Labs, Department of Biochemistry, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech

The Lahondère Lab focuses on studying the thermal biology, eco-physiology, and neuro-ethology of disease vector insects and ticks. We rely on a collaborative, multidisciplinary, and integrative approach, combining field work, behavioral analyses, molecular biology, chemical ecology, and electrophysiology. The results from these projects help to get a better understanding of the disease vectors’ biology and will lay the groundwork for the development of new tools to control their populations.

The Vinauger Lab studies the molecular, physiological, and neural basis of mosquito behavior. We are a group of experimental biologists, relying on a collaborative, integrative, and multidisciplinary approach, at the intersection between data science, neuro-ethology, molecular biology, and chemical ecology. Our long-term goal is to identify targets to disrupt mosquito-host interactions and reduce mosquito-borne disease transmission.