Joel Vega-Rodriguez

Post Doctoral Research Associate in Wolbachia Biology | Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Ready to make a difference in vector biology research? We are looking for a dedicated and enthusiastic researcher to join an exciting BBSRC-funded project exploring the fascinating interactions betwee...

Postdoc opportunity ALERT!

Interested in exploring interactions between #wolbachia , #anopheles mosquitoes and #microbiome? check this postdoc position in Dr. Grant Hughes lab at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine @mosquitomicrobe.bsky.social

app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car...

Enjoying a beer with my friend Gabi in a beautiful Aachen afternoon. It was great to see you. Thank you for the invitation and the great time.
👩🏼‍🔬🧑🏽‍🔬 🦠 🦟 🔬 🧬
@gabrielepradel.bsky.social

Exited to deliver the keynote address together with Markus Ganter at the @spp2225.bsky.social EXIT Workshop in beautiful Aachen, Germany. Thank you @gabrielepradel.bsky.social for the invitation and hospitality. 👨🏽‍🔬 🦟 🦠 🩸🔬

@rwth.bsky.social @dfg.de @niaidnews.bsky.social

An Essential Adaptor for Apicoplast Fission and Inheritance in Malaria Parasites Blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum parasites rely on a non-photosynthetic plastid, the apicoplast, for survival, making it an attractive target for antimalarial intervention. Like the mitochondrion, th...

🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨
We’ve uncovered a key player in malaria parasite cell division—meet PfAnchor, the first apicoplast-specific dynamin adaptor protein! Check the thread below 🧵for more details. #U_ExM #Malaria #Apicoplast
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pre-print Alert! We uncover new sporozoite biology in mosquitoes, classified sporogony stages in oocysts and showed that sporozoites produce 2 rhoptry pairs, each one specialized for salivary gland and hepatocyte invasion. @benliffner.bsky.social @sabsalon.bsky.social @thiagoluizsilva.bsky.social

Drug used for rare genetic disorders kills mosquitoes capable of malaria transmission Nitisinone, a medication already used to treat rare genetic disorders like tyrosinemia type 1, blocks an essential enzyme mosquitoes need to digest their blood meal, resulting in rapid death.The new

📢 @lstmnews.bsky.social : "Drug used for rare genetic disorders kills #mosquitoes capable of #malaria transmission" 🦟
www.lstmed.ac.uk/news-events/...

Congratulations!🥂🍾✨

Look at those beautiful #mosquito midguts infected with #malaria parasites.
Congratulations @sabsalon.bsky.social and @benliffner.bsky.social

Congratulations @benliffner.bsky.social. #U_ExM #Malaria revolutionized studying the cell biology of Apicomplexan parasites, and I love the work we did together ;-)

Congratulations!🥂🍾✨

This is so cool! 🚀 🧑‍🚀 🐬

Part of the Special Issue on Vectors and medical and veterinary entomology (2025). Editor @joshuabenoit.bsky.social

Great job @thiagoluizsilva.bsky.social and @renukajoseph.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Mosquito responses to modulate the host's blood humoral and cellular responses in the mosquito midgut. After blood ingestion, the human hemostatic and immune responses in the blood bolus remain active. Mosquitoes employ both early and late strategies to counter these host responses and protect the midgut epithelium: 1. Early responses – Mosquito ingests saliva containing bioactive proteins, such as apyrase and AAPP, that inhibit platelet aggregation, NETosis, and other host hemostatic and immune activities. 2. Late responses - The formation of the peritrophic matrix shields the midgut epithelium from microbes, free heme, and other toxic blood components. Additionally, the ingested blood stimulates gene expression, activating pathways for nutrient uptake, metabolic adaptation, and immune defense.

New review alert-Mosquito saliva does more than just help them feed—it also influences blood responses in the midgut, enhancing Plasmodium transmission. Could targeting saliva proteins be the key to blocking disease spread? #Malaria #Mosquito #VectorControl

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our 2025 March issue bit.ly/2N9R8Es reviews blood impact on vector-borne diseases, zoonotic Giardia transmission in cattle, parasite subcellular dynamics, Bacillus thuringiensis for nematode management, heptalaminate membrane of intravascular schistosomes, trade-offs in virulence evolution, & more

Fantastic collaboration with @sachiekanatani.bsky.social @freddyfrischknecht.bsky.social and the Sinnis, Barillas-Mury, Ribeiro, and Coppens labs.

High-Resolution Proteomics Unveils Salivary Gland Disruption and Saliva-Hemolymph Protein Exchange in Plasmodium-Infected Mosquitoes Plasmodium sporozoites, the stage that initiates a malaria infection, must invade the mosquito salivary glands (SGs) before transmitting to a vertebrate host. However, the effects of sporozoite invasi...

New Pre-print from our lab

High-Resolution Proteomics Unveils Salivary Gland Disruption and Saliva-Hemolymph Protein Exchange in Plasmodium-Infected Mosquitoes

Led by @thiagoluizsilva.bsky.social
🦟 🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟
#mosquito #malaria #proteomics #infectiousdiseases

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Glad to hear that my friend!

Multiple blood feeding bouts in mosquitoes allow for prolonged survival and are predicted to increase viral transmission during dry periods Dry conditions increase blood feeding in mosquitoes, but it is unknown if dehydration-induced bloodmeals are increased beyond what is necessary for re…

New paper published with the Benoit lab at the University of Cincinnati!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Check out our paper, co-authored by @akhorramnejad.bsky.social and me. Published in @commsbio.bsky.social

We explore how global change will affect mosquito-virus interaction. We use single or multi-generational exposure to heat to address this.
A 🧵 with our results (1/5)
rdcu.be/d8wse

Congratulations Hugo and the team! Beautiful study! 🥂🍾✨

Larvicidal activity of Trichoderma atroviride (Hypocreales: Hypocreaceae) against Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) Larviciding is an important part of effective integrated mosquito management. However, growing resistance to chemical and bacterial-based insecticides requires biocontrol agents with novel modes of ac...

New preprint from the lab in which we show that Trichoderma culture supernatant kills Aedes albopictus larvae 🦟🍄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Targeting Mosquito Spit Could Stop Parasites in Their Tracks A protein found in the saliva of Anopheles gambiae stopped blood from clotting in the insects’ stomachs and aided parasite transmission.

Our article on #mosquito salivary apyrase featured at The Scientist Thanks Mary Ann McDowell for the insightful comments! “Targeting Mosquito Spit Could Stop Parasites in Their Tracks”

www.the-scientist.com/targeting-mo...

Mosquito salivary apyrase regulates blood meal hemostasis and facilitates malaria parasite transmission - Nature Communications Here, Pala et al. show that mosquito salivary apyrase regulates hemostasis in the mosquito blood meal, boosting malaria transmission. They demonstrate that immunizing against apyrase inhibits parasite...

Our paper on the role of #mosquito salivary apyrase in regulating blood meal #hemostasis and #malaria #parasite transmission. Apyrase #immunization inhibits both transmissions.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Mosquito Tissue Ultrastructure-Expansion Microscopy (MoTissU-ExM) enables ultrastructural and anatomical analysis of malaria parasites and their mosquito - BMC Methods Background Study of malaria parasite cell biology is challenged by their small size, which can make visualisation of individual organelles difficult or impossible using conventional light microscopy. ...

Our paper on U-ExM for mosquito tissues (MoTissU-ExM) in BMC methods!
Great collaboration with @sabsalon.bsky.social and @benliffner.bsky.social
bmcmethods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....