My lab integrates population biology, ecology, molecular tools and theory to address fundamental and applied questions related to vector arthropods and the pathogens they transmit, with emphasis on release of genetically-modified mosquitoes for disease control, pathogen transmission dynamics and bioterrorism issues.

My broad research interests are in the relationship between the genetics of vector populations and the epidemiology of vector-borne pathogens. I address this broad question using both top-down and bottom-up approaches. Specifically, I am interested in 1) how natural genetic variation in wild vector populations conditions phenotypic variation in pathogen transmission and 2) how natural genetic variation in wild vector populations can be artificially altered to have a directed effect on pathogen transmission dynamics.

A major research focus of my laboratory is the development, evaluation and deployment of methods to spread introduced transgenes into natural vector populations. Ongoing projects include creation of methods to infect the mosquito Anopheles gambiae with the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia, detailed assessment of fitness costs related to transgenic manipulation in mosquitoes, development of multi-locus systems to spread genetic traits into mosquito populations, development of viral-based systems for gene expression and drive in Anopheles mosquitoes and studies of the relationship between ecological factors and the success of transgenic mosquito releases. Other major questions under investigation include examining relationships between vector population genetic structure and the epidemiology of vector-borne pathogens, using Culex tarsalis and West Nile virus as a model system.

I am looking for motivated people who are interested in applying a wide array of integrated techniques to investigate these important and exciting questions.

Funding Sources

Principal Investigator. R01 AI067371 (NIH/NIAID). 2007-2012. Genetic basis of WNV vector competence in Culex tarsalis.

Principal Investigator. R21 AI070178 (NIH/NIAID). 2007-2010. Wolbachia as an agent for population replacement in Anopheles gambiae

Principal Investigator. Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute Pilot Grant. 2007-2010 (no-cost extension). A viral biocontrol agent for Anopheles gambiae.

Principal Investigator. Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute Pilot Grant. 2009-2011. Identification and functional characterization of aquaporin genes in Anopheles gambiae.

Co-investigator, (Dr. Serap Aksoy, PI). R01 AI068932 (NIH/NIAID). 2008-2013. Evolutionary genetics of tsetse and its symbionts.

Co-investigator, (Dr. Douglas Norris, PI). R21 AI067386 (NIH/NIAID). 2008-2010. Rickettsia ricketti and Rickettsia-like organisms in Maryland.

Co-investigator, (Dr. Douglas Norris, PI). R03 AI079297 (NIH/NIAID). 2009-2011. Culture and Identification of Rickettsia-like Organisms in Maryland.

Lab Members

Post-doctoral Associates:

Dr. Xiaoxia Ren - Anopheles densovirus

Dr. Song Chen - Molecular genetics of Culex tarsalis

Dr. Grant Hughes - Wolbachia and Anopheles

Dr. Xing Zhang (co-advised with Dr. Douglas Norris) - Rickettsia infections in Maryland ticks

PhD Students:

Katie Provost-Javier - Autogeny in Culex tarsalis

Kyle Mclean (co-advised with Dr. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena) - Novel methods for transgenic manipulation

Technical Support:

Brittany Dodson

Agnes Balla

Nader Halim

Lab Alumni:

Students

Dr. Meera Venkatesan (currently post-doc, University of Maryland medical School)

Courtney Gamston, ScM (currently PhD student, Auburn University)

Post-docs and scientists

Dr. Joyce M. Sakamoto (currently post-doc, Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore)

Dr. Chaoyang Jin (currently post-doc, Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre)

Dr. Michael Petridis (currently researcher, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)

Technicians and volunteers

Catherine J. Westbrook, MS (currently PhD student, University of Florida)

Nana Quartey (Currently MD student, UT Southwestern Medical Center)

Roxy Garcia (currently MD student, University of California San Francisco)

Morgan Sellers (Currently MD student, University of Pennsylvania)

Aleisha Collinson-Streng (currently research fellow, NIH)

Mary Claire Hauer (currently technician, JHMI)

Collaboraters

West Nile Virus and Culex tarsalis

Dr. William Reisen, University of California Davis

Dr. Karl Broman, University of Wisconsin Madison

Dr. Laura Kramer, Wadsworth Center

Transgenic mosquitoes

Dr. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, Johns Hopkins University

Wolbachia/Microarray

Dr. Hervé Tettlin, The Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore

Dr. Serap Aksoy, Yale University

Media attention:

Public Radio International, "The World"

The New York Times, "Virus That Infects Mosquitoes Could Lead to Weapon Against Disease"

Canadian Broadcasting System, "Quirks and Quarks"

Australian Broadcasting Company, "ABC News"

American Society for Microbiology, "MicrobeWorld"

Multiple news outlets, "Strange Bedfellows (bedbugs)"

Malaria, West Nile Virus, Culex pipiens, Aedes Aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Anopheles gambiae, Cimex lectularius, Wolbachia, Transgenic, Mosquito, Vector-borne disease, Population

Maryland Daily Record 2009 Innovator of the Year

Faculty Innovation Fund Award, Johns Hopkins University

Graduate of the Last Decade (G.O.L.D.) Award, San Jose State University

Young Investigators Award, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Gerald Hollandsworth Prize, American Mosquito Control Association

William C. Reeves New Investigator Award, Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California

2009:

Venkatesan M and Rasgon JL. Population genetic data suggest a role for mosquito-mediated dispersal of West Nile virus across the western United States. Submitted.

Chen S, Armistead J, Provost-Javier K and Rasgon JL. Duplication, concerted evolution and purifying selection drive the evolution of mosquito vitellogenin genes. Submitted.

Provost-Javier KN, Chen S and Rasgon JL. Vitellogenin gene expression in autogenous Culex tarsalis. Submitted.

Rasgon JL. Wolbachia induces sex-specific mortality in the mosquito Culex pipiens. Submitted.

Arik AJ, Rasgon JL, Quicke KM and Riehle MA. 2009. Manipulating insulin signaling to enhance mosquito reproduction. BMC Physiology. 9: 15.

Rasgon JL. 2009. Multi-locus assortment (MLA) for transgene dispersal and elimination in mosquito populations. PLoS ONE 4: e5833.

Venkatesan M, Broman KW, Sellers M and Rasgon JL. 2009. An initial linkage map of the West Nile Virus vector Culex tarsalis. Insect Molecular Biology. 18: 453-463.

Jin C, Ren X and Rasgon JL. 2009. The virulent Wolbachia strain wMelPop efficiently establishes somatic infections in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 75: 3373-3376.

2008:

Dunning-Hotopp JC and Rasgon JL. 2008. Bacterial sequences in an invertebrate genome. Microbiology Today. Nov: 176-179.

Ren X, Hoiczyk E and Rasgon JL. 2008. Viral paratransgenesis in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. PLoS Pathogens, 4: e1000135. Featured in Faculty of 1000 Biology and Faculty of 1000 Medicine.

Rasgon JL. Wolbachia and Anopheles mosquitoes. In Insect symbiosis, vol. 3. Eds. K. Bourtzis and T. Miller. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. Ch. 14, 321-372.

Wong J, Tripet F, Rasgon JL, Lanzaro GC and Scott TW. 2008. SSCP analysis of scnDNA for genetic profiling of Aedes aegypti. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 79: 511-517.

Billingsley PF, Foy B and Rasgon JL, 2008. Mosquitocidal vaccines: a neglected addition to malaria and dengue control strategies. Trends in Parasitology, 24: 396-400.

Rasgon JL, 2008. Stable isotope analysis can potentially identify completely-digested bloodmeals in mosquitoes. PLoS ONE 3: e2198.

Rasgon JL, 2008. Using predictive models to optimize Wolbachia-based strategies for vector-borne disease control. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 627: 114-125.

2007:

Marrelli M, Li C, Rasgon JL and Jacobs-Lorena M. 2007. Transgenic malaria-resistant mosquitoes have a fitness advantage when feeding on Plasmodium-infected blood. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 104: 5580-5583. Featured in Faculty of 1000 Biology and Faculty of 1000 Medicine.

Venkatesan M, Westbrook CJ, Hauer MC and Rasgon JL. 2007. Evidence for a population expansion in the West Nile virus vector Culex tarsalis. Mol. Biol. Evol. 24: 1208-1218.

Venkatesan M, Hauer MC and Rasgon JL. 2007. Using fluorescently-labeled M13-tailed primers to isolate 45 novel microsatellite loci from the arboviral vector Culex tarsalis. Med. Vet. Entomol. 21: 204-208.

Rasgon J. 2007. Population Replacement Strategies for Controlling Vector Populations and the Use of Wolbachia pipientis for Genetic Drive. J. Vis. Exp. 5: 225.

Gamston C and Rasgon J. 2007. Maintaining Wolbachia in Cell-free Medium. J. Vis. Exp. 5: 223.

2006:

Rasgon JL, Ren X and Petridis M. 2006. Can Anopheles gambiae be infected with Wolbachia pipientis? Insights from an in vitro system. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 7718-7722.

Rasgon JL, Gamston C and Ren X, 2006. Survival of Wolbachia pipientis in cell-free medium. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 6934-6937.

Rasgon JL, Cornel AJ and Scott TW, 2006. Evolutionary history of a mosquito endosymbiont revealed through mitochondrial hitchhiking. Proc. R. Soc. B. 273: 1603-1611.

Sakamoto JM, Feinstein J and Rasgon JL, 2006. Wolbachia infections in the Cimicidae: Museum specimens as an untapped resource for endosymbiont surveys. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 3161-3167.

Rasgon JL, Venkatesan M, Westbrook CJ, and Hauer MC, 2006. Polymorphic microsatellite loci from the West Nile virus vector Culex tarsalis. Mol. Ecol. Notes. 6: 680-682.

Sakamoto JM and Rasgon JL, 2006. Geographic distribution of Wolbachia infections in Cimex lectularius L. (Heteroptera: Cimicidae). J. Med. Entomol. 43: 696-700.

Sakamoto JM and Rasgon JL, 2006. Endosymbiotic bacteria of bed bugs: Evolution, ecology and genetics. Amer. Entomol. 52: 119-122.

2005:

Rasgon JL and Gould F, 2005. Transposable element insertion location bias and the dynamics of gene drive in mosquito populations. Insect Mol. Biol. 14: 493-500.

Scott TW, Rasgon JL, Black WCIV and Gould F, 2005. Fitness studies: developing a consensus methodology, in Bridging laboratory and field research for genetic control of disease vectors, eds. Knols BGJ and Louis C. Frontis, Wageningen, The Netherlands, Ch. 16, 171-181.

Rasgon JL, Styer LM and Minnick SL, 2005. Traditional vector control research should receive higher priority than transgenic efforts to control vector-borne diseases: Con position. Amer. Entomol. 51: 108.

Rasgon JL, Styer LM and Minnick SL, 2005. The federal government should support the use of pesticides previously banned in the United States to fight vector-borne diseases in developing countries. Amer. Entomol. 51: 110-111.

2004:

Rasgon JL and Scott TW, 2004. Phylogenetic Characterization of Wolbachia Symbionts Infecting Cimex lectularius L. and Oeciacus vicarius Horvath (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). J. Med. Entomol. 41: 1175-1178.

Rasgon JL and Scott TW, 2004. Crimson: A novel sex-linked eye color mutant of Culex pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae). J. Med. Entomol. 41: 385-391.

Rasgon JL and Scott TW, 2004. Impact of population age structure on Wolbachia transgene driver efficacy: Ecologically complex factors and release of genetically-modified mosquitoes. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 34: 707-713.

Rasgon JL and Scott TW, 2004. An initial survey for Wolbachia (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) infection in selected California mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). J. Med. Entomol. 41: 255-257.

2003:

Rasgon JL and Scott TW, 2003. Wolbachia and cytoplasmic incompatibility in the California Culex pipiens mosquito species complex: Parameter estimates and infection dynamics in natural populations. Genetics 165: 2029-2038.

Rasgon JL, Styer LM and Scott TW, 2003. Wolbachia-induced mortality as a mechanism to modulate pathogen transmission by vector arthropods. J. Med. Entomol. 40: 125-132.

Cornel AJ, McAbee RD, Rasgon J, Stanich MA, Scott TW and Coetze M, 2003. Differences in extent of genetic introgression between sympatric Culex pipiens and Culex quinquefasciatus in California and South Africa. J. Med. Entomol. 40: 36-51.

Rasgon JL, 2003. Population subdivision can help or hinder Wolbachia introductions into vector populations. Proc. Mosq. Vec. Control Assoc. CA 71: 80-86.

2000:

Rasgon JL, 2000. Geographic distribution of Wolbachia infection in the California Culex pipiens complex: infection frequencies in natural populations. Proc. Mosq. Vec. Control Assoc. CA 68: 75-79.