3 years since last update (sorry i’ve been lazy) July 25, 2023

It’s been three years since I updated this site – COVID re-adjusted all our priorities. Too much stuff has happened since the last update so I won’t go into detail on all of it; just the highlights!

TONS of papers submitted and published. Seriously, to many to list here. Go take a look at the Publications page.

New grants awarded, and old grants completed. Go look at the Funding page.

Fulbright student Jaime Manzano-Alvarez successfully completed his MS degree (“Dehydration stress and Mayaro virus vector competence in Aedes aegypti”)! Jaime will be staying with us for his PhD!

Renuka Joseph successfully defended her PhD (“The characterization of the insect-specific virus, Eilat virus, and it’s potential as a tool against West Nile virus”), and was awarded a competitive postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH. Congratulations Renuka!

Rebecca Johnson successfully defended her PhD (“Anopheles gambiae densovirus as a viral vector for the expression of small RNAs and transgenes”) and began a postdoc at the Connecticut Agriculture Station.

Karen Kemerimbe successfully defended her PhD (“Investigating the modes of transmission and sex-specific responses of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes to a mosquito-borne alphavirus infection”) and is now the Assistant Director in the Penn State Office of Foundation Relations.

Cory Henderson successfully defended his PhD (“Arboviral dynamics and evolutionary genetics of mosquito vectors”) is is now a postdoc at Rutgers University.

Allyson Ray successfully defended her PhD (”Deformed wing virus in the western honey bee (Apis mellifera): Genotypic and phenotypic variation across contexts and scales”) and is now a postdoc at Vanderbilt University.

Jason was awarded a special NSF Merit extension for Special creativity to continue work on ReMOT Control gene editing technologies.

Jason was awarded the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Endowed Chair in Disease Epidemiology and Biotechnology.

New paper on scale and bristle development in Aedes aegypti! September 10, 2020

Actin bundles play a different role in shaping scales compared to bristles in the mosquito Aedes aegypti

New paper with collaborators on ReMOT Control in Nasonia wasps! August 2, 2020

With the Akbari lab at UCSD and former Rasgonlab Member Duverney Chaverra-Rodriguez, ReMOT Control is now working in parasitic hymenoptera!

Germline mutagenesis of Nasonia vitripennis through ovarian delivery of CRISPR‐Cas9 ribonucleoprotein

Dr. Sujit Pujhari starts independent faculty position August 2, 2020

We are sad that Sujit has left us, but thrilled that he has begun an independent position at the University of South Carolina Medical School. We expect big things from him in the future!

Humanized mouse models for COVID19 May 22, 2020

We wrote a thing. Why not, nothing else better to do on lockdown…

Mice with humanized-lungs and immune system – an idealized model for COVID-19 and other respiratory illness

New densovirus paper in Parasites and Vectors! April 22, 2020

Anopheles gambiae densovirus (AgDNV) negatively affects Mayaro virus infection in Anopheles gambiae cells and mosquitoes

ReMOT Control CRISPR Editing of whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) published in CRISPR Journal!! April 21, 2020

Very proud of this one, seems like we’ve been working on it forever! Also, got the cover of the journal!

New paper on ReMOT Control in Anopheles! April 20, 2020

Cas9-mediated gene-editing in the malaria mosquito Anopheles stephensi by ReMOT Control

New NIH grant for the RasgonLab! September 29, 2019

With a new 5 year $2.7M grant from the NIH, we’re excited to return to our roots and continue our research on West Nile virus and Culex tarsalis!

New Postdoc Dr. Sultan Asad July 16, 2019

Sultan just joined the RasgonLab to study mosquito-virus interactions. Welcome!