I am an epidemiologist, entomologist and mathematical modeller working to understand the best way to kill mosquitoes and eliminate vector-borne diseases through targeting transmission. My work concentrates on malaria though interests span a number of other parasitic infections as I believe much can be learnt from drawing parallels between different host-parasite systems.

How best to control malaria
Over 250 million insecticidal nets are distributed each year but the rise of mosquitoes resistant to net insecticides is reducing their effectiveness and putting global disease control under threat. In collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and scientists in disease endemic countries we are tracking the spread of insecticide resistant mosquitoes across Africa and exploring its epidemiological impact. We have developed an online tool https://mint.dide.ic.ac.uk/ which has been trialled by the WHO and National Malaria Programme to support decisions on the type of vector control to use given budgets and local disease epidemiology.

Evaluating the effectiveness of new tools
There are lots of interesting potential new ways of controlling vector borne diseases. These include the use of transmission blocking vaccines (a vaccine given to humans which prevents mosquitoes acquiring infection), genetically modified mosquitoes, new formulations of insecticide, new classes of bednets and novel insecticide delivery mechanisms (for example, the use of passive emanators or attractive sugar baits). The work has lead to an improved understanding of the biological processes governing disease transmission and supports the design and analysis of cluster randomised control trials evaluating novel products. Our work is exploring the use of easy to measure entomological correlates of protection to support the recommendation process and expedite the time between product development and its deployment at scale.

Risks to disease control
There are currently lots of threats to global vector borne disease control ranging from climate change to the introduction of novel pathogens. We are very interested in understanding how the environment influences malaria transmission and control and are working with scientists in Burkina Faso and Cameroon to better understand how the complex drivers of transmission may change in a warmer world. Our work investigates the dangers posed by the invasive mosquito species Anopheles stephensi in Africa and illustrate how changing vector control interventions, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic, would increase the burden of disease.