Dr. George Dimopoulos is a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. He serves as deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and director of its Parasitology Core facility. Dr. Dimopoulos has developed pathogen resistant mosquitoes based on genetic engineering of the mosquito’s immune system, and CRISPR/CAS9-based disruption of pathogen host factor.
Dr. Ethan Bier is an Allen Distinguished professor in the section of Cell and Developmental Biology at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He received his Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School where he studied regulation of immune genes and did his postdoctoral studies at UCSD on the development of the nervous system. Dr. Bier was a pioneer in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 based Gene Drive system, initially in Drosophila, and subsequently in mosquitoes, in partnership with Dr. James.
Dr. Gregory C. Lanzaro is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and the founder and chief of the Vector Genetics Laboratory at University of California, Davis. He has over 35 years’ experience in the field of medical entomology, with a focus on vector population genetics. Dr. Lanzaro has extensive field experience in Africa and his role in the UCMI project is to lead the effort in conducting field trials to evaluate the performance of genetically engineered mosquitoes, and to determine their efficacy in eliminating malaria.
Dr. Anthony A. James is the principal investigator of the research group at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). He is a Donald Bren and Distinguished Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics (School of Medicine) and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry (School of Biological Sciences), and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). An alumnus of UCI, he did postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School and Brandeis University. His research group is recognized widely for its contributions to molecular biological investigations of mosquitoes and the development of genetic approaches to controlling vector-borne diseases. Their work for UCMI involves the development of engineered genes that interfere with malaria parasite development in mosquitoes coupled with gene-drive systems as part of a population modification control strategy.