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Upcoming Club EvMeds!
Theme: One Health and Evolutionary Medicine
North Carolina State University Experts
Dr. Sid Thakur, Dr. Meredith Spence Beaulieu,
Dr. Michael Reiskind, and Dr. Brian Wiegmann
Friday, December 1st
12:00 PM EST
Mosquito phylogenomics: understanding host use and disease transmission through an evolutionary lens
Summary
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals for humans, transmitting an array of viruses, nematodes, and protozoa of global importance. Despite this large medical impact and the profound effects of mosquitoes on human evolution, we know little about the evolutionary history of mosquitoes and how so many came to be enduring public health threats. Reiskind and Wiegmann will lead a conversation on their phylogenomic analysis that resolves the position of the major disease vector species and the major mosquito lineages. They incorporate an extensive database of host associations to understand host-use patterns and feeding shifts over evolutionary time. Thakur and Spence Beaulieu will introduce the Global One Health Academy at NC State and lead a discussion on the intersections of evolutionary medicine and One Health, using mosquito phylogenomics as a case example.
Bio
Sid Thakur is the Executive Director of the Global One Health Academy and Professor of Molecular Epidemiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine at NC State. His research is on antimicrobial-resistant bacterial foodborne pathogens at the interface of humans, animals, plants, and the environment. Meredith Spence Beaulieu is the Program Manager of the Global One Health Academy at NC State and a board certified medical and veterinary entomologist. She helps envision and execute university-wide interdisciplinary initiatives to advance research, training, and public engagement in One Health. Michael Reiskind is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in Entomology as well as the Director of Graduate Programs for the Global One Health Academy at NC State. He studies the ecology of vectors of disease, with an emphasis on mosquito and tick ecology. Brian Wiegmann is a William Neal Reynolds Professor of Entomology at NC State. His research in molecular biosystematics is focused on inferring phylogenetic relationships and testing hypotheses about the evolution and diversification of insects.
