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Looking at an insecticide resistance experiment in the UC Davis Vector Genetics Lab, Storer Hall, are (from left) Brehima Diallo, Lisa Reimer, Tara Thiemann and Abdoulaye Adamou. Diallo and Adamou, both of Mali, worked with Thiemann and Reimer last summer in Mali and are now here on a six-month Fogarty International training grant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
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DAVIS—Two University of California, Davis entomology doctoral students who collaborated last summer with scientists at the Malaria Research and Training Center at the University of Bamako, Mali, are now working with them on the UC Davis campus as part of an international training grant.
Graduate students Tara Thiemann and Lisa Reimer gained a grassroots perspective about malaria, one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases, on a West African research expedition led by UC Davis medical entomologists and faculty members Gregory Lanzaro, Anthony Cornel and Shirley Luckhart.
The UC Davis researchers are studying the population structure of Anopheles gambiae, insecticide resistance, and how the malaria parasite (Plasmodium) interacts with its mosquito vector.
Thiemann and Reimer, both grad students in the Lanzaro Vector Genetics Lab, Storer Hall, collected and examined specimens for three weeks in Mali with Lanzaro, Cornel and Luckhart. Thiemann and Cornel then hunted mosquitoes an additional five weeks in Cameroon.
“We collected adult mosquitoes on the walls and ceilings of people’s homes, and larvae in nearby puddles and pools,” Thiemann said. The researchers collaborated with the Malaria Research and Training Center in Mali and the Ministry of Health in Cameroon, and also worked with local villagers.
Mali scientists Brehima Diallo, Abdoulaye Adamou and Cheick Coulibaly are now training in UC Davis labs through a Fogarty International training grant, part of the National Institutes of Health’s Global Infectious Disease Research Training Program. They will be on campus through March 2007.
“Brehima and I worked together in Mali collecting mosquitoes, rearing families and conducting insecticide assays,” Reimer said. “Now we are working together here, focusing on molecular genetic and biochemical techniques for understanding insecticide resistance. The opportunity for us to collaborate and share our expertise has been invaluable.”
Reimer said that 90 percent of the global incidence of malaria occurs in Africa.
“Malaria is a serious problem in these countries, especially among children,” she said. “About 3000 children die from malaria every day. They are primarily from Africa and they are usually under five years old.” Globally, the disease an estimated 500 million acute illnesses and kills some 2.7 to 3 million people a year.
“It was very hard work and they did very well, achieving their goals under sometimes difficult conditions,” said Lanzaro, a medical entomologist and director of the UC Mosquito Research Program, UC Malaria Research and Control Group, Center for Vectorborne Diseases and the Vector Genetics Lab. Both he and Cornel conduct malaria research in Africa annually.
“I’m very proud of what Lisa and Tara achieved,” said Lanzaro, “and the professional manner in which they interacted with our Malian and Cameroonian collaborators and the people in the villages.”
Said Cornel: “Lisa spent a lot of time conducting insecticide susceptibility assays in Mali. She found pesticide resistance in some locations. These findings are important in ensuring long term efficacy of insecticide-treated bed nets.”
Thiemann recounted a typical day:
“We generally woke up early and headed to the village for collecting. We collected adult mosquitoes using a mouth aspirator from the walls and ceilings of the homes. We stored the mosquitoes in paper cups until the evening to allow the ovaries to develop. We then dissected the ovaries from the mosquitoes and stored them separately from the bodies for transport back to the United States.”
Before heading to Africa, Thiemann first traveled to the Kearney Agricultural Center, Parlier, to learn dissection techniques. Reimer’s journey began in Liverpool, England, where she attended the 17th annual Biology of Disease Vectors course at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool. The course emphasized the biology of disease vectors, covering current molecular biological, genetic, biochemical, physiological and genomic approaches. It also addressed such issues as disease resurgence, insecticide resistance and vaccine development.
Thiemann’s whirlwind work in Mali included three days in Bamako, four days in Kayes, one day in Bafeloube and five days in Manantali. Then it was off to Cameroon, where she worked in Buea, Yaounde, Garoua Boulai, Ngaoudere, Tibati, Banyo, Foumban, Yaounde and Lagdon
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Tara Thiemann mouth-aspirates adult mosquitoes in Riao, Cameroon. |
“As neither of us speak French, it was often difficult to communicate with villagers and other researchers, but the project went very well,” said Thiemann, who serves as president of the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Students’ Association.
The grad students described the trip as both meaningful and rewarding. Reimer, who received the statewide William C. Reeves New Investigator Award last February for her Anopheline mosquito research on insecticide resistance genes, said: “We were very well received. Everyone was helpful. We met many researchers that we hope to collaborate with in the future.”
Thiemann is exploring the genetic structure of natural populations of A. gambiae, and Reimer, the distribution of insecticide resistance genes.
Both have degrees in biology. Thiemann received her master’s degree in biology in 2003 from Truman State University, Kirksville, Mo., later serving as a biology lecturer and post-graduate researcher there. Reimer earned her bachelor’s degree in biology in 2000 from the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Wash., and worked as a research assistant at Princeton University before enrolling in the UC Davis graduate program.
Lanzaro is principal investigator of a five-year, $650,000 Fogarty International training grant, while co-investigators are Cornel and Luckhart. Cornel, an associate professor of entomology at UC Davis, directs the Mosquito Research Laboratory at the Kearney Agricultural Center. Luckhart serves as an associate professor of medical microbiology and immunology, UC Davis School of Medicine.
Lanzaro is training Adamou on population genetics; Cornel works with Diallo on insecticide resistance; and Luckhart with Coulibaly on vector-Plasmodium interactions.
The UC Davis malaria researchers are closely affiliated with the newly formed UC Malaria Research and Control Group (UCMRCG), part of the UC Mosquito Research Program, a statewide program of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
UCMRCG, which is combating malaria in Africa, is comprised of scientists from four UC campuses and mosquito abatement experts throughout the state. UC Davis medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro, director of the group, also directs the UC Mosquito Research Program, Center for Vectorborne Diseases, and the Vector Genetics Lab on the UC Davis campus. The UCMRCG Web site is http://www.mrcg.ucdavis.edu/.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
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