Courtesy of John Carlson/Yale
An Anopheles mosquito, the type that carries malaria
THE MOSQUITO OLFACTION NETWORK
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt campus
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.
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THE MOSQUITO OLFACTION NETWORK
Photo by Neil Brake
Vanderbilt mosquito researchers
Photo by Neil Brake
Larry Zwiebel with a
bucket of Anopheles
mosquitoes
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.
Yale campus
The search for odors that affect mosquitoes can be carried out much more easily using
the genetically engineered fruit fly than it can in the mosquito itself. “We aim to develop a
seductive mosquito perfume that will lure them into traps and also a mixture that smells
so terrible to them that it drives them away,” Carlson says.
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THE MOSQUITO OLFACTION NETWORK
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.
Courtesy of Yale University
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 semifield studies.
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THE MOSQUITO OLFACTION NETWORK
Photo by Guy Ackermans/Wageningen UR
Graduate student [ck] Laura Simpson works in
Wageningen’s mosquito lab
Photo by Guy Ackermans/Wageningen UR
Willem Takken working in laboratory
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
Ifakara Health Research and
group. The IHRDC team will evaluate the potency of candidate
Development Centre
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.
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THE MOSQUITO OLFACTION NETWORK
Courtesy of Gerry Killeen
Gerry Killeen
Courtesy of IHRDC
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
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.
Mosquito sculpture at
MRC Laboratories
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THE MOSQUITO OLFACTION NETWORK
Photo by Silas Majumbere/MRC Labs
MRC mosquito researcher
Photo by Boye Barry/MRC Labs
David Conway
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