Frequently asked questions

We like to call our type of research proactive, which means that we aim to discover ways to prevent virus transmission from mosquitoes to humans in the first place. Vaccines are important as an anti viral strategy in humans, they can be preventive or therapeutic but they are often very complex to develop, so we want to find an alternate solution—prevent virus transmission from mosquitoes to humans in the first place.

The fruit fly is the way we model what is happening in mosquitoes, they have very similar anti viral responses. Mosquitoes bite, and when infected they pose a real threat during experiments. So it is necessary to conduct mosquito experiments in P3 laboratories—and that is very expensive and time consuming. Fruit flies are easier to rear, the generation time is short (10 days from egg to adult), and it is easier to generate mutants quickly and efficiently to move our research forward.

Urbanization has created a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are being dispersed geographically due to increased travel, and human-created ecological niches such as discarded rubber tires. We need to control mosquitoes in order to reduce the transmission of disease from mosquitoes to humans.

Insects are among the most extensive and diverse group of animals on earth and they represent more than half of all known living organisms. Insects are an essential part of the earth’s ecosystem, with many roles such as soil turning and aeration, dung burial, pest control, pollination and wildlife nutrition. We need them.

Our hypothesis is that one might be able to control the transmission by understanding the relationship between the virus and the insect immune system. Why is it that an insect does not get sick when it is infected by a virus that kills humans? Can we remodel this insect immunity to protect humans from devastating insect-borne viral diseases?

Insects are the most extensive and diverse group of animals on earth and they represent more than half of all known living organisms. Here’s an interesting fact: there are approximately 1,000,000 insect species versus 5,500 mammalian species. The insect to human ratio is even more astonishing– approximately 200,000,000 insects to just one human.

Insects are an essential part of the earth ecosystem, with many roles such as soil turning and aeration, dung burial, pest control, pollination and wildlife nutrition. But insects are also considered pests by humans as many of them (mosquitoes, sandflies, etc) transmit pathogens (protozoa, bacteria, viruses) that sicken and kill millions of people, and also affect cattle and plants. Thus far, more than 500 arthropod-borne viruses have been identified worldwide, and of these, some 80 species can cause human diseases with a broad spectrum of symptoms, including encephalitis, fever, and hemorrhaging. Among these diseases, the most “popular”, such as Dengue Fever, West Nile Encephalitis, and Chikungunya Fever, are transmitted by mosquito bites. The mosquito borne diseases are very complex /difficult to prevent and control. Understanding how the infection is controlled within the insect before crossover to the human host could generate new strategies to disrupt pathogen transmission. We study insects in the hope of learning how to control the insect-side of the equation and to develop additional ways of preventing disease in humans.

Research is a full time job. Post docs, students, technicians and bioinformaticians work in the lab relentlessly. A large part of the money that we obtain is used to pay their salaries. Experiments are expensive, for example: we need to grow insects, feed them, clean them, keep them in incubators at a constant temperature so that we can conduct accurate experiments. We need to cultivate cells in special media and special incubators too. Therefore we must buy reagents that are quality certified to be sure that all of our results can be reproduced by any other lab in the world, using the same reagents. We need high-powered microscopes to manipulate the flies and we need high precision pipettes to distribute tiny amounts of liquid into tubes. Throughout all experiments, we must protect ourselves: lab coats, goggles, gloves while making sure that everything is clean. It all adds up, so the money helps support our lab to operate in the best possible conditions, to be rigorous, to guarantee quality and to investigate precisely.