Research activities focus on mosquito species, vectors of parasitic and arboviral diseases including African Malaria vector species of the Anopheles gambiae complex and European arbovirus vector species such as Culex pipiens and Aedes albopictus.

Main research topics:

1) Insecticide resistance: Insecticide usage has been crucial in reducing malaria cases and deaths during the last decades. The same chemicals are also essential for the control of ongoing arbovirus transmission. The increasing spread of insecticide resistance in vector species worldwide is threatening the effectiveness of these control tools and thus our possibility to limit disease transmission. Research activities focused on increasing the comprehension of the spread of resistance phenotypes and underlying mechanisms in European populations of Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens as well as African populations of An. gambiae, allowing to:

– highlight for the first time pyrethroid resistance in Italian populations of both species, Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens

– identify novel point-mutations in both Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens and evaluate their role in conferring insecticide resistance

– evaluate the spread and differential presence of mutations associated with insecticide resistance in European vector species as well as African Malaria vector species.

2) Population genetics & genomics: Populations genetic/genomic studies were performed for populations of the An. gambiae complex and Ae. albopictus, allowing to investigate population genetic structure, patterns of hybridization and migration and to evaluate the impact of such evolutionary processes on the role of different species as vectors as well as the effectiveness of novel control tools based on sterile-insect-techniques or transgenic approaches.

3) Ecology of Afrotropical malaria vectors Investigation of differences in ecological adaptations of African Anopheles species with particular reference to epidemiologically relevant parameters such as Plasmodium infection status, bloodmeal source, distribution of insecticide resistance alleles and inversion polymorphisms. These studies allowed to investigate changes in biting behaviour and rhythms and to evaluate the impact on the effectiveness of insecticide treated bed-nets in high malaria endemic areas.

Researcher at UniCamillus.