This week we welcome the newest member of our team, Dr. Woranich Hinthong. Woranich is joining us as a Postdoctoral Fellow, bringing an exceptional background in Tropical Medicine and Veterinary Sciences.

Recently, Susana and her team were awarded a UKRI-Defra grant to develop genomic tools (e.g., amplicon sequencing assays) and establish a consortium for a One Health approach to VBDs called the GenES_VBD network (Genomic Epidemiology Tools for the Surveillance of Vector-Borne Diseases applied to tick species, reservoirs, and pathogens). The consortium is coordinated by LSHTM (with Susana as the PI) and includes the UKHSA Medical Entomology & Zoonoses Ecology (MEZE) and Porton Down Genomics teams.

The malaria vector Anopheles stephensi has invaded and established itself in the Horn of Africa, and more recently Nigeria. The expansion of this vector poses a significant threat to malaria control and elimination efforts. Molecular methods are urgently needed to assist surveillance activities, including for the detection of insecticide resistance mutations. Work performed by Holly et al, presents a next-generation amplicon-sequencing approach, for high-throughput monitoring of insecticide resistance genes, species identification and characterization of genetic diversity in An. stephensi. Our work presents a reliable, cost-effective strategy using amplicon-sequencing to monitor known insecticide resistance mutations, with the potential to identify new genetic variants, to assist in the high-throughput surveillance of insecticide resistance in An. stephensi populations.