Lecture Title: Mosquitoes: A Flexible and Dangerous Predator of Humans

Dr. Leslie Vosshall's group is interested in the molecular neurobiology of mosquito host-seeking behavior. Female mosquitoes require a blood meal to complete egg development. In carrying out this innate behavior, mosquitoes spread dangerous infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Humans attract mosquitoes via multiple sensory cues including emitted body odor, heat, and carbon dioxide in the breath. The mosquito perceives differences in these cues, both between and within species, to determine which animal or human to target for blood-feeding. Some of the questions we are currently addressing are: Why are some people more attractive to mosquitoes than others? How do insect repellents work? How are multiple sensory cues integrated in the mosquito brain to elicit innate behaviors? Recent advances from my group in analyzing the molecular biology of host-seeking behavior will be discussed.

ABOUT DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST, PROFESSOR LESLIE B. VOSSHALL

Leslie B. Vosshall is the Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as well as HHMI Investigator and Robin Chemers Neustein Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at The Rockefeller University. She is a molecular neurobiologist known for her work on the genetic basis of chemosensory behavior in both insects and humans. Her notable contributions to science include the discovery of the insect odorant receptors, and the elucidation of general principles regarding their function, expression, and the connectivity of the sensory neurons that express them to primary processing centers in the brain. She founded the Rockefeller University Smell Study in 2004 with the goal of understanding the mechanisms by which odor stimuli are converted to olfactory percepts. Vosshall received an A.B. in Biochemistry from Columbia University in 1987 and a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1993 mentored by Michael W. Young. Following postdoctoral work with Richard Axel at Columbia University, she joined the Rockefeller faculty in 2000. She is the recipient of the 2008 Lawrence C. Katz Prize from Duke University, the 2011 Gill Young Investigator Award, the 2020 National Academy of Sciences Pradel Research Award, and the 2021 W. Alden Spencer Award (joint with Kristin Scott). Vosshall is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Philosophical Society.

ABOUT THE PROFESSOR SHARON COSLOY - EDWARD BLANKDISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST LECTURESHIP

Dr. Sharon Cosloy was a member of the City College biology faculty for 27 years and served as Chair of the Biology Department for six years. She was a beloved mentor, educator, wife and mother and a passionate investigator of life and science. The Professor Sharon Cosloy and Edward Blank Family Distinguished Scientist Lectureship is regarded as the preeminent scientific lecture on campus. The City College of New York is grateful to Edward Blank and his family for their generous support.