Mapping the genetic structure of mosquitos to better understand the spread of malaria and other infectious diseases

Igor Sharakov, a professor of the Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is researching a way to create a three dimensional map of the genomic structure of mosquitos that carry and transmit malaria. Sharakov is in collaboration with Varvara Lukyanchikova, a Fulbright Scholar with the Novosibirsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Using this roadway of five different species of mosquitos, the hope is to find a way to eliminate the spread of malaria as well as other infectious diseases.