News

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Members of our lab recently traveled to Annobón, Equatorial Guinea for an initial visit to a new field site as part of the University of California Malaria Initiative (UCMI). The team—including our Dr. Greg Lanzaro, Dr. Anton Cornel, and Ivan Mugeni—joined UCMI contractor, Maria Maciel Corrêa, to begin on-the-ground activities and assess the site for future work.

We are pleased to share that our paper, “Host preference and resting behavior of Anopheles coluzzii (Diptera: Culicidae) on the island of São Tomé, West Africa,” has been published in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

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Job Summary
Under general supervisor of the Principal Investigator (PI) and his executive assistant, provide administrative assistance to the Vector Genetics Laboratory, a research group dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics of insect vectors that transmit human and animal disease and to improving vector control strategies through applied research.

We are pleased to announce the publication of Maria Corrêa's paper, “Aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity in mosquito larval habitats in São Tomé and Príncipe,” in PLOS ONE. This study provides the first detailed characterization of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in mosquito larval habitats on São Tomé and Príncipe, documenting diverse taxa and habitat-specific patterns that are important for understanding ecosystem structure and potential interactions with disease vectors.

We are excited to share that our paper, “Genetics of range expansion and admixture of Aedes aegypti populations in California,” has been published in BMC Genomics.

The study uses whole-genome data to examine the population structure, range expansion, and admixture of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes across California, providing new insights into how this important disease vector has spread since its introduction to the state.

Congratulations to all of the authors on this publication!

Lab member Brett Morgan will present a poster entitled “Environmental Constraints on Movement: Using Landscape Resistance Models and Mark–Release–Recapture to Identify Dispersal Barriers” at the 12th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society (TIBS Aarhus 2026).

We are pleased to announce that Rithika Senthilkumar, an Undergraduate Research Scholar in the UC Davis Vector Genetics Laboratory (VGL), has been awarded a 2025 Promega DOORS Scholarship. 

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The Vector Genetics Lab (VGL) at the University of California, Davis currently has three post-doctoral positions available for highly motivated candidates with a background in ecology, population genetics, genomics, or bioinformatics. The VGL focuses on problems in the fields of evolutionary genetics, ecology, and vector-borne disease control.

Ongoing projects: