April 22, 2021
Berlin Londoño to present Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology Seminar
Submitted by Brandy Nowakowski
Berlin Londoño, assistant professor of entomology at Kansas State University, will present "Antibody Responses Against Arthropod Saliva — Implications in Biomarker Design and Vaccine Development" at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22, via Zoom.
Zoom Meeting ID: 919 8216 1072
Passcode: 704075
Londoño earned her Master of Science from Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia and her doctorate from Tulane University. The focus of Londoño's research program is studying the role of immunity against arthropod salivary proteins on disease severity and transmission. Her previous research has demonstrated that human antibodies elicited against Aedes, Culex and Anopeles salivary proteins can be used as epidemiological tools for the surveillance of arthropod-vector contact as well as a measure of risk for mosquito-borne disease transmission. Another part of her research program is to characterize the impact of human immune factor activation in the mosquito midgut. Specifically, she is studying the role of the human complement proteins in arbovirus transmission from the human to the mosquito. Through this work, she has demonstrated that activation of human complement in mosquito midgut induces gene expression of immune-related genes in Ae. aegypti.