Biography

I have worked on insects, particularly mosquitoes from the past seven years trying to understand their basic biology and their interaction with the parasite, with a long-term goal to develop effective malaria control strategies using genetic methods.  My past research experiences have allowed me to gain significant expertise in molecular biology and population genomics. In addition to my work on mosquitoes, my earlier research work on biting midges have provided me with an enhanced understanding in terms of their abundance and vectorial capacity with changing climatic conditions. I am particularly interested in Insulin-like peptides which seem to play an important role in the physiology of mosquitoes. My current research work focuses on ticks, which is a vector of Lyme`s disease particularly in northeastern and midwestern parts of the United States of America. I am trying to understand the DNA methylation pattern in different life stages and in sensory organs. In addition to this, I am working on understanding the population genetic structure of the deer ticks in the United Staes through next-gen sequencing (RADseq). For one of my project, I am working to identify the differentially expressed genes during different life stages of ticks with a long-term goal of knocking them out using the CRISPR/Cas9 system.