The international symposium, titled "Facing the Challenge of Vector-Borne Disease in the 21st Century," will take place March 27-28 in Room 1102A, Genomics Building. The entire program of the symposium is included below.
The symposium will bring together scientists and students who study insects that "vector" — carry or transmit — pathogens of humans and plants, as well as researchers who examine the underlying genetic and biochemical mechanisms.
Experts in the field will present their work on genomics, molecular genetics, population genetics and vaccine discovery for a wide range of vector-borne diseases in humans and plants.
"To my knowledge, this is the first symposium to cover vector-borne diseases in both humans and plants," said Alexander Raikhel, a professor of entomology and chair of the symposium organizing committee. "It will provide an excellent forum for discussing what makes insects such good vectors for diseases in plants and humans. With the many advances entomologists have made in the genomics and molecular biology of vectors, this is an excellent time for such a symposium on vector-borne diseases to take place."
Topics covered at the symposium include the social and economic impact of vector-borne diseases in the developing world and elsewhere; mosquito and malaria control; the molecular genetics of malaria parasites; vector-pathogen interactions; engineering mosquito resistance to pathogens; vaccine development; insecticide resistance in mosquitoes; the evolution of blood feeding in assassin bugs; the kissing bug problem in Southern California; a dengue fever vaccine; odor responses in mosquitoes; plant immune responses; and plant-disease vector interactions.
Dr. Haile Debas, the executive director of the UC San Francisco Global Health Sciences and the director of the University of California Global Health Institute, will give the keynote address titled "Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Health Challenges in the 21st Century."
More information about the symposium, including registration information, can be found here.
The symposium is being hosted by the Center for Disease Vector Research (CDVR) and the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology (IIGB) at UC Riverside.
"The CDVR is unique in that it consists of faculty and students who study insect vectors of pathogens of humans and plants as well as the pathogens themselves," said Peter Atkinson, the center's director. "The IIGB through its core genomics and bioinformatics facilities and trained staff has the state of the art DNA sequencing and bioinformatics capacity to participate at the cutting edge of this important research field."
The symposium is open to the public. A registration fee of $60-$100 includes refreshments, lunches, poster session and an evening reception on March 27. Reporters may attend the entire symposium at no charge.
As part of the symposium, a poster session will be held in the Genomics Building to highlight vector biology research of graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty.
The CDVR and IIGB are joined in cosponsoring the symposium by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the One Health: Water, Animals, Food and Society Center of Expertise of the UC Global Health Institute, and the UC Riverside Department of Entomology.
Symposium program
Saturday, March 27
Genomics Building Auditorium
8:30 a.m.: Symposium opening
Alexander Raikhel, organizing committee chair
Thomas Baldwin, dean, College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences
Peter Atkinson, CDVR director, entomology — introduction of the keynote speaker and acknowledgements
9 a.m.: Keynote lecture — Haile Debas (executive director, UCSF Global Health Sciences), Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Health Challenges in the 21st Century
Morning session (co-chairs Linda Walling and Joao Pedra)
1. Social Impact of Vector-Borne Diseases
9:50 a.m. Marcia Castro (Harvard School of Public Health): Social aspects of mosquito and malaria control
10:20 a.m. Anil B. Deolalikar (UC Riverside Economics): Social and economic consequences of vector-borne diseases in the developing world
10:40 - 11 a.m. Coffee break
2. Population Genetics and Systematics of Disease Vectors
11 a.m. William Black (Colorado State University): Population genetics of disease vectors
11:30 a.m. Christiane Weirauch (UC Riverside Entomology & CDVR): Evolution of blood feeding in assassin bugs (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) and the kissing bug problem in Southern California
11:50 a.m. Gregory Lanzaro (UC Davis): The genetics of Anopheles gambiae populations in west and central Africa
12:20 - 1:20 p.m. Lunch and poster set up
Afternoon Session (co-chairs James Ng and Isgouhi Kaloshian)
3. Host Seeking Behavior in Disease Vectors
1:20 p.m. Leslie Vosshall (Rockefeller University, NY): Odorant receptors in Drosophila
1:50 p.m. Anand Ray (UC Riverside Entomology & CDVR): Modification of odor responses in mosquitoes
2:10 p.m. Ring Carde (UC Riverside Entomology & CDVR): Insect orientation to host odors
2:30 - 2:50 p.m. Coffee break
2:50 p.m. Consuelo De Morales or Mark Mescher (Pennsylvania State University): Plant signals attracting insect vectors (pending)
4. Small RNAs in Control of Genome Stability and Disease in Arthropods
3:20 p.m. Mikiko S. Siomi (Keio University of Tokyo, Japan): Small RNAs in animals
3:50 p.m. Shou-Wei Ding (UC Riverside Plant Pathology & Microbiology and CDVR): The role of siRNAs in anti-viral responses
4:10 p.m. Peter Atkinson (UC Riverside Entomology & CDVR): piRNAs in vector insects
4:30 p.m. Alexei Aravin (California Institute of Technology): Arginine methylation as a molecular signature of the piRNA pathway
5 p.m. Forum I: What makes Arthropods such ideal vectors of diseases (Alexander Raikhel, discussion leader; Consuelo De Morales; Shou-Wei Ding; William Black)
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.. Genomics Building. Reception and poster session (registered participants). Posters will remain for the next day.
Sunday, March 28
Genomics Building Auditorium
Morning Session (co-chairs Karine Le Roch and Anupama Dahanukar)
5. Genetic Molecular Approaches to Investigating Vector-Pathogen Interactions
8 a.m. George Dimopoulos (Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health): Immune interaction between mosquitoes and their pathogens; a genomics approach
8:30 a.m. Georg Jander (Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, N.Y.): Molecular genetics of Arabidopsis-aphid interactions
9 a.m. Isgouhi Kaloshian (UC Riverside Nematology & CDVR): Plant immune responses to aphid and root-knot nematode infestation
9:20 a.m. Joao Pedra (UC Riverside Entomology & CDVR): Microbial colonization of ticks
9:40 a.m. Stephane Blanc (UMR BGPI-CIRAD/INRA/SUPAGRO, Montpellier, France): Plant-vector-virus interactions
10:10 a.m. James Ng (UC Riverside Plant Pathology & Microbiology and CDVR): Virus-vector interactions mediating the semi-persistent Bemisia tabaci transmission of lettuce infectious yellow virus
10:30 - 10:50 a.m. Coffee break
10:50 a.m. Linda Walling (UC Riverside Botany & Plant Sciences and CDVR): The Arabidopsis-whitefly interaction: deceptive messages and biphasic host responses
11:10 a.m. Alexander Raikhel (UC Riverside Entomology & CDVR): Transgenic mosquitoes in studies of disease vector-pathogen interactions
6. Molecular Approaches to Control of Vectors and Diseases
11:30 a.m. Martin Donnelly (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK): Molecular genetics of insecticide resistance in mosquitoes
Noon - 1 p.m. Lunch
Afternoon session (co-chairs Anand Ray and Christiane Weirauch)
1 p.m. Rodrigo Almeida (University of California, Berkeley): Blocking the transmission of a leafhopper-borne bacterial pathogen
1:30 p.m. Brian Federici (UC Riverside Entomology & CDVR): Recombinant bacterial larvicides for controlling major vector mosquitoes
2 p.m. Jesus G. Valenzuela (NIH, Bethesda, Md.): Sand flies, leishmaniasis and development of vaccine
2:30 p.m. David Lo (UC Riverside division of biomedical science & CDVR): Novel approaches to an anti-dengue fever vaccine
2:50 p.m. Kirk Deitsch (Weill Cornell Medical College, N.Y.): Genetic basis of antigenic variations in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum
3:20 - 3:40 p.m. Coffee break
3:40 p.m. Karine Le Roch (UC Riverside Cell Biology & Neuroscience and CDVR): Genomics and proteomics studies of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum
4 p.m. Anthony James (UC Irvine): Engineering mosquito resistance to pathogens
4:30 p.m. Forum II: Urgent Issues in Arthropod Vector Biology (Linda Walling, discussion leader; Martin Donnelly; Georg Jander; Peter Atkinson)
5 p.m. End of symposium
The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UC Riverside's enrollment of over 19,000 is expected to grow to 21,000 students by 2020. The campus is planning a medical school and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UC Riverside Palm Desert Graduate Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion.