This project involves an international team of scientists with a diverse range of expertise including Wolbachia genetics, mosquito biology and ecology, dengue epidemiology and control, and health education and promotion. Our collaborative approach draws on this diverse expertise with the explicit goal of developing a novel approach to dengue control.
Prof. Scott O’Neill
School of Integrative Biology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Scott O’Neill is the project leader and coordinates the different aspects of the project to ensure the outlined objectives are achieved. Prof. O’Neill’s research team is one of the leading Wolbachia research groups in the world. They will work on transferring life-shortening Wolbachia into the Aedes aegypti mosquito and characterise the life-shortening phenotype in this mosquito. Researchers will then characterise the molecular basis of the life-shortening effect and continue work on novel approaches to determine mosquito age in the field.
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Prof. Ary Hoffmann
Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Ary Hoffmann is a world-leading researcher in Wolbachia genetics and the dynamics of Wolbachia invasion and spread through host populations. His group will conduct experimental and theoretical work to understand how life-shortening Wolbachia may invade natural mosquito populations.
CESAR profile
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Dr. Stephen Dobson
University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA.
Stephen Dobson is an expert in Wolbachia and mosquito interactions. In recent years, his research has focused on natural Wolbachia infections of the mosquito species, Aedes albopictus. His group will work in collaboration with Prof. Hoffmann’s to better understand the process of Wolbachia invasion. Dr Dobson will also conduct experiments transferring life-shortening Wolbachia into Ae. albopictus.
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Dr. Pattamaporn Kittayapong
Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Pattamaporn Kittayapong’s group has extensive experience with Wolbachia infections in mosquitoes, and the ecology and control of dengue vectors. Her research group will work closely with Prof. O’Neill understand the baseline relationship between mosquito age and dengue transmission in Thailand.
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Dr. Piyarat Butraporn
Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Piyarat Butraporn research focuses on community involvement and acceptance of dengue control programs. His group will evaluate current health education programs and examine social acceptance of dengue control programs in rural and urban Thai communities. Researchers will use a survey-based approach to direct future community-based health education efforts.
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Dr. Scott Ritchie
Tropical Population Health Unit, Queensland Health and James Cook University, Cairns, Australia.
Scott Ritchie coordinates dengue control efforts in northern Queensland, Australia. His research group has established field sites in the city of Cairns for mosquito age-grading projects and studies on urban dengue transmission. Dr Ritchie collaborates extensively with the other Australia researchers on this project and his group will be heavily involved in coordinating the field cage trials.
Email
Dr Peter Ryan and Prof. Brian Kay
Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia
The Queensland Institute of Medical Research Mosquito Control lab has extensive research experience with the ecology and control of a range of mosquito disease vectors throughout Australia and Southeast Asia. Prof. Kay’s pioneering work on biological control of dengue vectors in Vietnam provides important infrastructure needed to conduct field studies in the region. Dr Ryan and Prof. Kay’s research group will collaborate with Australian and Vietnamese researchers conducting research into population age structure and dengue transmission.
Lab webpage
Peter Ryan's Email
Brian Kay's Email
Assoc. Prof. Vu Sinh Nam
Ministry of Health and National Dengue Project Team, Hanoi, Vietnam
Vu Sinh Nam has worked with Prof Kay since 1989 to establish new dengue control programs in Vietnam. Together they have developed an effective network of hundreds of personnel who understand contemporary strategies for vector surveillance and control, and who now have achieved Ae. aegypti eradication in 42 communities. Nam will be responsible for field team development and coordinating interactions between communities, government agencies and scientists. As a designated Head of Planning for Public Health in the Ministry of Health, he will be responsible for national liaison.
Email
Dr Darlene McNaughton
James Cook University, Cairns, Australia.
Darlene has undertaken long-term anthropological research in Aotearoa-New Zealand 1997, Northern and Southern India 1999-2001 and in Western Cape York Peninsula 2005-2006. Her research interests include the nature of subalternity and the cultural underpinnings of bio-medicine and public health discourses on obesity. Her research profile includes several international publications and conference papers in the field of medical anthropology. Darlene is exploring local understandings of dengue fever in North Queensland and the social and ethical issues surrounding the implementation of new vector control strategies.
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Dr. Tetsuhiko Sasaki
Tamagawa University, Tokyo, Japan.
Tetsuihiko Sasaki conducts leading research into Wolbachia genetics. Researchers in Sasaki’s laboratory use molecular techniques to gain insight into how Wolbachia interacts with its host. His research team, in collaboration with Dr Fukatsu, will be undertaking research to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of Wolbachia-mediated life-shortening in insects.
Email
Dr. Takema Fukatsu
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan.
Takema Fukatsu is actively involved in molecular studies of Wolbachia and other insect symbionts. His group has extensive research experience in symbiont genetics and host interaction. Fukatsu's group, in collaboration with Dr Sasaki, investigates the mechanisms of Wolbachia-mediated life-shortening in insects.
Lab webpage
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Prof. Michael Turelli
Department of Evolution and Ecology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, USA
Michael Turelli has collaborated with Ary Hoffmann on the population dynamics and evolution of Wolbachia in California populations of D. simulans since 1985. He has produced a wide range of mathematical analyses that have elucidated both the population dynamics of infection frequencies and the coevolutionary trajectories of Wolbachia and their hosts. He will work with Hoffmann’s group and with Nick Barton to understand experimentally and mathematically the consequences of life-shortening Wolbachia for the dynamics of Wolbachia and dengue infection frequencies within and among populations.
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Collaborating scientists:
Dr Craig Williams
University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
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Prof. Richard Russell
University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
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Dr Steven Sinkins
Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
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