Dr. Leslie Vosshall will deliver CCNY's 2025 Cosloy-Blank Family Distinguished Lecture.
Dr. Leslie B. Vosshall, the noted molecular neurobiologist renowned for her work on the genetic basis of chemosensory behavior in both insects and humans, delivers the 10th Annual Sharon Cosloy - Edward Blank Family Distinguished Scientist Lecture at The City College of New York on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Her talk, “Mosquitoes: A Flexible & Dangerous Predator of Humans,” starts at 4 p.m. at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center located on the CCNY campus at 85 Saint Nicholas Terrace, Manhattan. It is free and open to the public. Click here to register and for directions.
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.
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.
Currently, her 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 the Vosshall group is addressing are:
- Why are some people more attractive to mosquitoes than others?;
- How do insect repellents work?; and
- How are multiple sensory cues integrated in the mosquito brain to elicit innate behaviors?”
She will discuss in her lecture recent advances by her group in analyzing the molecular biology of host-seeking behavior.
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 (jointly with neuroscientist 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 Blank Family Distinguished 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.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers, and society. At City College, more than 16,500 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity, and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together,” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College's mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Jay Mwamba
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jmwamba@ccny.cuny.edu