Lyndsey Gray

Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2020-2021

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology

Research Summary: What if you could take a pill that made your blood toxic to mosquitoes? That’s exactly what happens when you take ivermectin. When mosquitoes ingest ivermectin in a blood meal, the drug fatally binds to a critical protein channel common in invertebrate nervous systems. My job is to see how this medication can be used to fight one of the deadliest diseases in the world – malaria. Specifically, I’m monitoring wild mosquitoes to see how their populations respond after ivermectin is administered to people. Our goal is to ensure this new weapon against malaria can be used as efficiently as possible.