As part of the STOP-MATING project, Celine joined the Crisanti Lab at Imperial College London for a five-month secondment. Her work focuses on developing genetic tools to disrupt mosquito mating behaviour, with particular attention to Culex pipiens, a key vector of public health importance. During her stay, Celine is adapting molecular methods used in malaria mosquitoes to Culex, performing transcriptomic analyses of swarming genes and CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockout experiments. The aim of her research is to identify and validate genes whose disruption could interfere with mosquito swarming. Upon returning to the Spaccapelo Lab at the University of Perugia, Celine will evaluate the swarming behaviour of the targeted Culex mosquito lines to further advance innovative and sustainable gene-editing-based vector control strategies.
