Lisa Baik
University of California-Davis, CA·Neuroscience·Early-career
The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, spreads Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and dengue. It has invaded every continent except Antarctica, and its range in the US is growing because it outcompetes other species and because of climate change.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biology
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
Aedes albopictus
Asian tiger mosquito
disease vector
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2028
What they work on
- Test how taste neurons of Aedes albopictus respond to a panel of taste compounds, including blends of human host cues with different compositions, using physiological recordings.
- Determine how host taste cues affect biting behavior in the Asian tiger mosquito, which may help explain why some people are bitten more than others.
- Identify the genes underlying host taste detection by generating CRISPR-Cas9 mutant mosquitoes, made with a gene-editing tool, and testing how missing receptors change biting.
More about the research
Yet it remains little studied. Research on other mosquitoes has focused on how they use smell, sight and heat to find people to bite. Taste may make the final decision to bite, but almost nothing is known about taste in this species. This project tests the hypothesis that Ae. albopictus uses its taste system to detect cues on hosts and guide biting.
Why it matters
Preventing bites is one of the most effective ways to stop mosquito-borne disease. Identifying the taste cues and receptors that drive Asian tiger mosquito biting could aid the development of biologically and environmentally safe control agents. People at risk of dengue, yellow fever, Zika and chikungunya could benefit, especially as the mosquito's range expands.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jeffrey R Powell
Yale University, CT·Ecology & Evolution
Map genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships among Southwest Indian Ocean populations of Aedes aegypti and its relatives Ae. mascarensis and Ae. pia, using population genetics and phylogeography to identify candidate cryptic species.
Anupama Dahanukar
University of California-Riverside, CA·Neuroscience
Identify genes that reduce responses of bitter, deterrent taste neurons to noni fatty acids in Drosophila sechellia, testing candidate Gustatory receptors, Odorant-binding proteins and Ionotropic receptors.
Laura B Dickson
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether formation of the peritrophic matrix, a sac around the blood meal, changes Aedes aegypti midgut susceptibility to arboviruses by controlling how easily the virus reaches the gut lining.
The school
University of California-Davis: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 647 research doctorates a year.
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