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Tag: Strand

UGA Researchers Receive NSF Grant to Study Hormone Regulation in Mosquitoes

Donna Huber on September 6, 2017

mosquito

Athens, GA–Mosquitoes transmit diseases such as Zika virus, dengue, and malaria to people and other vertebrates worldwide. In a newly funded National Science Foundation (NSF) project, Michael Strand and Mark Brown, both professors in the Department of Entomology and members of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, hope to gain new insights into how hormones coordinate immune responses with reproduction.

The immune and reproductive systems of all animals, including mosquitoes, require large amounts of energy but how these energetic demands are regulated at the molecular level are poorly understood. How immune defenses are regulated relative to other functions like reproduction is of long-standing interest and the main goal of this project is to answer this question.

Strand and BrownMosquitoes provide an interesting system for addressing these issues because almost all species must feed on blood from a vertebrate host, such as humans or another animal, to reproduce.  However, blood feeding exposes mosquitoes to microorganisms that cause disease in mosquitoes, the vertebrate hosts mosquitoes feed upon, or both.  Background studies by Strand and Brown have shown that certain hormones co-regulate reproduction and immune defense.

“What we hope to characterize in this project are the biochemical pathways these hormones interact with, and how these pathways affect the ability of mosquitoes to defend themselves from infection,” said Strand. “We also will learn whether these pathways function similarly or dissimilarly between species.”

The fundamental questions about reproduction and immunity that this project is designed to answer apply not only to mosquitoes but to all animals. “The information we generate will also potentially provide information that can be applied toward reducing mosquito reproduction and transmission of pathogens that cause human disease,” said Strand.

NSF requires grant recipients to engage in activities that have broader impacts that enhance STEM education and improve science literacy in the general public. “The public at-large generally knows that mosquitoes can transmit human diseases, but people often do not understand how disease transmission occurs or why some mosquito species are disease vectors but most are not,” said Strand. In conjunction with Georgia 4-H and the Cooperative Extension Program at UGA, teaching materials for middle and high school students will be developed that explain disease transmission, the mosquito life cycle, and strategies for controlling vector populations.

National Science Foundation Award #1656236 “Endocrine regulation of immunity and reproduction in mosquitoes”

Writer: Donna Huber

Contact: Michael Strand, Mark Brown

‘Prestigious recognition’: UGA entomologist elected to National Academy of Sciences

Donna Huber on May 16, 2017

Michael Strand
University of Georgia Regents’ Professor Michael Strand became the university’s eighth member of the National Academies with his election to the National Academy of Sciences. Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski
By Sam Fahmy | May 15, 2017
First appeared in ColumnsUniversity of Georgia Regents’ Professor Michael R. Strand has received one of the highest honors a scientist can receive—election to the National Academy of Sciences.

Strand, who holds an appointment in the entomology department of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and an affiliated appointment in the genetics department of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is UGA’s eighth member of the National Academies, which include the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine.

“The University of Georgia commends Dr. Strand on this most prestigious recognition,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “Dr. Strand’s influential research is representative of the high caliber of faculty at UGA and the strength of our growing research enterprise.

It is an honor to have him represent this university in an organization of such tremendous national importance.”

Strand’s primary research interests are in the study of the interactions among insects, parasites and microorganisms. Applications of his work focus on insects that are important to agriculture and that transmit human diseases such as malaria and Zika virus. His work has garnered nearly $28 million in external funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation. He has published more than 220 research papers, and his findings have been cited at a level that places him in the top 1 percent of entomologists and among the top 5 percent in the fields of biology and biochemistry.

“Dr. Strand’s work underscores the profound impacts that basic science can have on agriculture and human health,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “He exemplifies the kind of world-changing research and instruction that make the University of Georgia one of the nation’s leading public universities.”

Strand’s expertise is sought around the globe. He has delivered invited seminars and symposia in nearly every department of entomology in the U.S. and at universities and conferences in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia. In Athens, he has taught undergraduate survey courses in entomology and has mentored more than 50 doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to careers in government, industry and academia.

Strand has earned several honors over the course of his career, including being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Entomological Society of America. In 2013, he was named Regents’ Professor, an honor bestowed by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to distinguished faculty whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized both nationally and internationally as innovative and pace setting.

He joined the UGA faculty in 2001 and is a member of the university’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and its Faculty of Infectious Diseases. He earned his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from Texas A&M University and was a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and—with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine—provides science, engineering and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

 

UGA entomologist Michael Strand elected to National Academy of Sciences

Donna Huber on May 2, 2017

Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia Regents’ Professor Michael R. Strand has received one of the highest honors a scientist can receive-election to the National Academy of Sciences.

Strand, who holds an appointment in the entomology department of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and an affiliated appointment in the genetics department of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is UGA’s eighth member of the National Academies, which include the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine.

“The University of Georgia commends Dr. Strand on this most prestigious recognition,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “Dr. Strand’s influential research is representative of the high caliber of faculty at UGA and the strength of our growing research enterprise. It is an honor to have him represent this university in an organization of such tremendous national importance.”

Strand’s primary research interests are in the study of the interactions among insects, parasites and microorganisms. Applications of his work focus on insects that are important to agriculture and that transmit human diseases such as malaria and Zika virus. His work has garnered nearly $28 million in external funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation. He has published more than 220 research papers, and his findings have been cited at a level that places him in the top 1 percent of entomologists and among the top 5 percent in the fields of biology and biochemistry.

“Dr. Strand’s work underscores the profound impacts that basic science can have on agriculture and human health,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “He exemplifies the kind of world-changing research and instruction that make the University of Georgia one of the nation’s leading public universities.”

Strand’s expertise is sought around the globe. He has delivered invited seminars and symposia in nearly every department of entomology in the United States and at universities and conferences in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia. In Athens, he has taught undergraduate survey courses in entomology and has mentored more than 50 doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to careers in government, industry and academia.

Strand has earned several honors over the course of his career, including being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Entomological Society of America. In 2013, he was named Regents’ Professor, an honor bestowed by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to distinguished faculty whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized both nationally and internationally as innovative and pace setting.

He joined the UGA faculty in 2001 and is a member of the university’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and its Faculty of Infectious Diseases. He earned his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and was a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and-with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine-provides science, engineering and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

Writer: Sam Fahmy

UGA researchers find hormone receptor that allows mosquitoes to reproduce

Donna Huber on April 8, 2015

Mark Brown mosquito
Dr. Mark Brown’s mosquito lab in Athens. September 2010

Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia entomologists have unlocked one of the hormonal mechanisms that allow mosquitoes to produce eggs.

The results provide insight into how reproduction is regulated in female mosquitoes, which transmit agents that cause malaria and other diseases in humans and domestic animals. Their work was published in the April edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The model for this research is the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Females have to consume a blood meal before they are able to produce a batch of eggs. The blood meal triggers the mosquito’s brain to release two hormones, an insulin-like peptide known as ILP and an ovary ecdysteroid-ogenic hormone known as OEH, which activate processes in the female mosquito that result in mature eggs.

Many hormones, including OEH and ILP, act through receptors on the surface of cells. In 2008, study co-authors Mark Brown, a professor of entomology, and Michael Strand, a Regent’s Professor, characterized the receptor for ILP in mosquitoes, which helped reveal many details about its role in egg formation. OEH plays an equally important role in female reproduction, but its receptor was more difficult to identify.

“From previous work, we knew that the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster does not produce OEH. A different group of fruit flies, including Drosophila mojavensis—as well as all mosquitoes we had genomes for—do have OEH,” said the study’s lead author Kevin Vogel, a postdoctoral fellow also in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ entomology department.

“Most hormones bind a single receptor, so we hypothesized that an OEH receptor should be found in mosquito genomes as well as Drosophila mojavensis, but not in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster.”

By identifying and comparing the sequences of more than 400 receptors in the genomes of two fruit flies and three mosquito species, they identified a single gene for a receptor with an unknown function within the species distribution they expected.

By targeting the gene encoding the receptor, the authors found that disabling its expression inhibited the mosquitoes’ ability to produce eggs after a blood meal.

“This receptor fills a major gap in our understanding of the regulation of mosquito reproduction,” Strand said. “Going forward, we are well positioned to better characterize the steps leading to egg production and potentially identify points at which we can disrupt reproduction and control mosquito populations.”

The study is available online at www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/04/02/1501814112. Research reported in this release was supported by the National Institutes of Health under grant numbers R01AI033108 to Brown and Strand and F32GM109750 to Vogel.

For more information on the UGA department of entomology, see www.ent.uga.edu.

Writer: J. Merritt Melancon Mark Brown
Contact:Kevin Vogel Michael Strand