Michael Strand
University of Georgia, GA·Microbiology & Immunology
Mosquitoes spread more disease-causing pathogens than any other arthropod. Females of most species need blood meals to reproduce, and each meal can pass pathogens between hosts.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
Physiology
- Topics
mosquito
Aedes aegypti
gut microbiota
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Identify the genes switched on by hypoxia-induced transcription factors (HIFs), proteins activated by low oxygen, in Aedes aegypti larvae.
- Characterize the different isoforms, or alternative versions, of the HIF-α protein in Aedes aegypti and their roles in development.
- Analyze how HIF signaling, triggered by microbe-induced gut hypoxia, controls lipogenesis (fat production) and midgut growth in mosquito larvae.
- Assess whether the gut microbiota serves as a direct nutrient source that supports Aedes aegypti development.
More about the research
Blocking transmission or shrinking mosquito populations are both ways to control disease. Mosquitoes carry gut microbes, together called the gut microbiota, that their larvae need to develop. This long-running project asks how those microbes make growth possible. The focus is Aedes aegypti, a major carrier of several human diseases.
Why it matters
Understanding how gut microbes drive mosquito growth could reveal molecular targets to disrupt development of disease-carrying mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti. It could also help programs that rear mosquitoes for vector control raise them more effectively. The findings may also clarify how diet and gut microbes regulate growth across mosquito species.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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.
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.
Albert Koong
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Identify the HIF2-dependent factor that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) secrete to push macrophages toward an immune-suppressing M2 state in pancreatic cancer, using mass spectrometry, and determine how it is produced and how it alters macrophages.
The school
University of Georgia: 27 labs on PI Pages, $628M a year on research, 598 research doctorates a year.
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