Insectary

With space designed for production and study of insects, the Insectary has been carefully planned to address the needs of current researchers while maintaining as much flexibility as possible to meet future challenges.

A number of new and existing research programs occupy the insectary. These investigations include studies ranging from understanding the basic biology and physiology of arthropods to an assessment of the biological compatibility of pathogens and the arthropods that transmit them to the development of transgenic mosquitoes. The majority of these investigations are being conducted by JHMRI faculty members who are working on malaria, and the studies involve production of mosquitoes infected with malaria parasites.

The new facility provides eight individual units in 3,000 square feet of laboratory, housing, and tissue-culture space.The facility includes two units designated for BSL-3 use that are designed for handling arthropods infected with human malaria parasites as well as other pathogens.

The Insectary supports the following areas of research in malaria and will, in some cases, also provide information on West Nile virus and Lyme disease:

• Production and assessment of genetically transformed mosquitoes and their ability to support parasites. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena

• Evaluation of transmission-blocking vaccine targets.  Nirbhay Kumar

• Analysis of mosquito immune response to parasite infection. George Dimopoulos

• Production of infected mosquitoes to obtain malaria sporozoites used to define immune responses against the pre-erythorocytic stages of malaria parasites. Fidel Zavala

• Analysis of in vitro interactions between the parasites and host liver cells. Parasites obtained from mosquito salivary glands will be used to infect liver cells with the goal of understanding their development and nutritional needs in that setting.  Isabelle Coppens

• Evaluation of the capacity of field populations of mosquitoes to transmit malaria. Doug Norris , Greg Glass

• Study of genetic and phenotypic evaluation of field populations of malaria mosquitoes.  George Dimopoulos ,  Greg Glass , Doug Norris , Al Scott

• Study of the biological capacity of arthropod field populations to transmit disease and resist insecticides.  Greg Glass , Doug Norris    

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