Research Portfolio

Understanding vector competence, molecule by molecule.

Our lab investigates the molecular dialogues between insect vectors, pathogens, and vertebrate hosts. By decoding immune and metabolic mechanisms, we develop novel approaches to disrupt disease transmission cycles.

01
Trained immunity · epigenetics

Mosquito innate immune memory.

Insects were long assumed to lack immunological memory — no antibodies, no adaptive immune system. Yet a mosquito that survives one infection can meet the next very differently. This line asks how mosquitoes encode a prior pathogen encounter through epigenetic reprogramming of their immune cells — and whether that memory could be steered to make the vector itself resistant, interrupting transmission at its source.

Trained immunity Epigenetics Immune priming Mosquitoes
Key reviews
From the lab
T0 · NAIVE PRIMING RECALL NaivePrimedMemory
FIG 01IMMUNE PRIMING
02
Host immunometabolism

Host metabolic modulation of vector competence.

Every blood meal is a metabolic snapshot of whoever the mosquito just bit — and obesity and diabetes now reshape the blood of billions of people. Could the metabolic state of that blood change whether the mosquito goes on to transmit a virus? This line treats host metabolic disease as an overlooked variable in arbovirus transmission, asking how altered blood chemistry rewires the mosquito gut and its susceptibility to pathogens such as Zika.

Zika virus Aedes aegypti Obesity Diabetes
Key reviews
From the lab
LEAN OBESE ZIKV +++ ZIKV + Vector infection rate
FIG 02HOST METABOLIC AXIS
03
Evolutionary immunology

Evolution of innate immunity in insects.

Ideas like trained immunity and inflammation were built largely from mammalian studies — yet the molecular machinery of innate immunity is far older than vertebrates. This line traces immune components across the animal tree, from cnidarians to mammals, to ask which parts are genuinely ancient and conserved. Reading that deep history lets concepts from human immunology be tested in insects — and points to where immune memory itself may have first arisen.

Comparative Invertebrates TLR / NF-κB
Key reviews
From the lab
Mammals Birds Insects Cnidarians COMMON ANCESTOR
FIG 03PHYLOGENY · INNATE IMMUNE ORIGIN
04
Cell biology

Inorganic polyphosphate biology.

Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) is one of life's oldest molecules — a simple chain of phosphates found from bacteria to human cells — yet what it does inside insects is still largely unread. This line follows where polyP accumulates and how cells interpret it: as a phosphate reservoir, a buffer against heavy metals, and a partner in mobilizing the yolk that fuels the embryo. Even seeing it is a challenge, driving DAPI-based microscopy approaches to map the molecule in situ.

polyP DAPI Phosphate sensing
Key reviews
From the lab
PPPPPP POLYPHOSPHATE CHAIN (P_n) MONOMER STORAGE
FIG 04POLYPHOSPHATE · P_n
05
Insect physiology

Invertebrate gut physiology & ultrastructure.

The midgut is the first thing a virus, a parasite, or an insecticide meets after an insect feeds — the frontier where infection and digestion are decided. This line examines how that tissue is built and how it works across very different insects, from the secretory cells of caterpillar guts to the oxidant chemistry of termite digestion. The same cell biology that governs how a pest handles its food shapes whether a vector can be infected — and where it might be stopped.

Midgut Ultrastructure LUCHM
Key reviews
From the lab
LUMEN EPITHELIUM BASAL LAMINA HEMOCOEL
FIG 05MIDGUT · CROSS-SECTION
Infrastructure

Infrastructure & collaborative network.

Our research leverages the Vector Insects Platform (Plataforma de Insetos Vetores) at IBCCF/UFRJ and the Advanced Microscopy Unit at CENABIO/UFRJ, supported by a network of international collaborators.

5
Research lines
15+
Years of research
4
Countries · collab.
40+
Peer-reviewed papers