Courtesy of John Carlson/Yale

An Anopheles mosquito, the type that carries malaria

THE MOSQUITO OLFACTION NETWORK

Vanderbilt campus

Vanderbilt University

Laurence J. Zwiebel, associate professor of biological sciences, is the project’s overall director. His laboratory has pioneered the identification of mosquito odorant receptors. Its role will be to apply the tools of genetic engineering and molecular biology to further analyze these receptors in the Anopheles mosquito, particularly the ones that respond to human odors. The researchers will use genetic engineering techniques to place mosquito smell receptors in immature frog eggs and grow them in cultures in order to test large numbers of different chemical compounds for those that interact the most strongly with the receptors that the mosquito uses for many important behaviors, most particularly to seek out human prey.

Photo by Neil Brake		Photo by Neil Brake
The subject of the research project: the Anopheles gambiae mosquito.		Larry Zwiebel at the microscope.

Yale campus

Yale University

Scientists at Yale University, directed by John R. Carlson, Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, will be searching for compounds that excite or block the smell receptors in mosquito antennae. His lab will apply its extensive expertise in identifying odors that activate individual insect receptors. In particular, Carlson and his colleagues will be employing a system that they developed which allows mosquito receptors to function in the antennae of Drosophila melanogaster, a tiny fruit fly whose genetics has been studied extensively.

Photo by Larry Zwiebel		Courtesy of Yale University
Yale researchers have genetically engineered the fruit fly, like the three shown above, so its antennae acts like that of the Anopheles mosquito, shown above.		John Carlson

Wageningen University

Wageningen University campus

The investigators at Wageningen University in the Netherlands—Associate Professor Willem Takken, co-principal investigator, and senior research scientist Bart Knols—will concentrate their research on the neuro-physiological and behavioral responses of Anopheles mosquitoes in response to candidate compounds that come from Vanderbilt and Yale. First, the activity of single compounds will be investigated. If a compound causes behavioral activity, either attraction or repellence, it will be added to simple odor blends designed either to repel mosquitoes even in the presence of human odors, to attract them more strongly than human odors, or that simply confuse the mosquito so it does not respond to human odors. Successful blends will be passed on to Tanzania for semi-field studies.

Photo by Guy Ackermans/Wageningen UR		Photo by Guy Ackermans/Wageningen UR
Graduate student Laura Simpson works in Wageningen’s mosquito lab		Willem Takken working in laboratory

Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre

Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre

IHRDC is located in southeastern Tanzania. It is a center for biomedical, clinical and epidemiological research with a mission to conduct health research that will lessen the burden of disease in its local area, the country as a whole and East Africa at large. The Kilombero Valley, where IHRDC is located, holds the world record for reported human exposure to malaria and is one of the best studied areas of malaria transmission in Africa. IHRDC Director Hassan Mshinda and Gerry Killeen, who heads the Public Health Entomology Unit, are leading the Tanzania research group. The IHRDC team will evaluate the potency of candidate compounds and blends in an enclosed biosphere before proceeding to full field trials in nearby villages. The facility will allow the scientists to determine rapidly the way in which the mosquitoes respond to different odorant blends and different release strategies under relatively controlled and safe conditions using uninfected mosquitoes. This high-throughput but semi-natural system will point the way for the more realistic but labor intensive field trials on both sides of the African continent.

Courtesy of Gerry Killeen		Courtesy of IHRDC
Gerry Killeen		Ifakara researchers test the effectiveness of insecticide-impregnated bednets by blowing mosquitoes into the spheres made of netting and counting how many die.

Medical Research Council Laboratories in the Gambia

Mosquito sculpture at MRC Laboratories

The MRC Laboratories in the Gambia has an international reputation for research on malaria, viral and bacterial diseases, with an emphasis on basic scientific research, clinical studies and large epidemiological studies and intervention trials. The MRC Laboratories have a track record for pioneering new mosquito control strategies in Africa, such as conducting the first successful large-scale trials of insecticide-treated bednets 25 years ago. David Conway, head of MRC Laboratories malaria research program, will lead the Gambian research team which will conduct full-scale field trials of the most promising odorants and release methods identified by the IHRDC. These will include village-wide studies that will evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy for disrupting mosquito behavior.

Photo by Silas Majumbere/MRC Labs		Photo by Boye Barry/MRC Labs
MRC mosquito researcher		David Conway