Coefficient Giving, a philanthropic funder and advisor committed to cost-effective, high-impact giving, has awarded $30 million to the University of California Malaria Initiative (UCMI) to advance its work in preventing the mosquito-driven spread of malaria. The new funding continues a partnership between Coefficient Giving and UCMI that began in 2019 and will support UCMI’s growing collaboration with the Government of Equatorial Guinea to implement UCMI’s gene drive technology in support of the country’s national malaria elimination goals.
SRA Brett Morgan and Postdoc Shreena Pradhan recently returned from fieldwork in São Tomé and Príncipe, where they contributed to two complementary projects on Anopheles coluzzii. One project investigated how this malaria vector tolerates saline environments, with larvae collected from various sites spanning fresh to brackish waters and tested in the lab for salt stress responses, alongside RNA sequencing to identify genes involved in salinity tolerance.
A new study from our lab and collaborators, published in Malaria Journal, examines the breeding ecology of Anopheles coluzzii, the primary malaria vector on São Tomé. Monitoring 32 aquatic habitats in Bairro Verde across wet and dry seasons (2023–2024), the team found that this species utilizes a wide range of temporary and permanent water bodies and tolerates diverse environmental conditions.
Greg Lanzaro and Ana Kormos recently attended the Mosquito Kolymbari Meeting, held August 1–7, 2026 in Kolymbari, Crete, Greece. This meeting brings together researchers from around the world to share advances in mosquito biology and vector-borne disease research in a highly interactive, discussion-focused setting. During the meeting, Greg presented his talk, “Evaluation of population modification using gene drive,” as part of the session on genetic approaches to vector control .
VGL staff researcher Claire Egan and postdoctoral scholar Alan Juache recently returned from a four-week fieldwork trip to São Tomé and Príncipe where they completed fieldwork for UCMI as part of ongoing environmental studies.
Postdoctoral Fellow – Population Genomics Informatics Location: Vector Genetics Laboratory (VGL), University of California, Davis / Davis, CA / USA Duration: 2 years with possibility of extension Start Date: July 2026 Application Review: Rolling until filled
