EMD Seminar Series: Serap Aksoy, "Innovative methods to combat Tsetse fly transmitted Africa Trypanosomiasis"

Tsetse flies transmit devastating diseases in Africa that impact human and animal health. Given that there are no vaccines to prevent mammalian infections, reducing the tsetse populations has been an effective to block disease. Aksoy’s research has helped develop interdisciplinary approaches to understand critical determinants of disease transmission ranging from research on tsetse and trypanosome biology; to population genetics of tsetse, symbionts, and trypanosomes; to disease epidemiology in Africa. Her research provided seminal information on tsetse physiology and tsetse's obligate symbiosis with microbes, and collectively identified multiple molecular targets to reduce tsetse populations. Her recent studies on trypanosome development processes focus on the development of transmission blocking approaches to curb disease at the mammalian bite site. She led an international consortium to obtain the genome sequence of tsetse flies, which vastly expanded functional studies on this neglected vector and helped build scientific capacity in disease endemic laboratories in Africa.

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