Stephanie BLANDIN

Information

Scientific interests and projects

Scientific interests:

The goal of our laboratory is to decipher mosquito/pathogen interactions in the case of disease vectors, and to use this information to design novel strategies to limit disease transmission. For this, we infect different mosquito species with murine and human malaria parasites, and we genetically isolate mosquito lines that vary in their ability to support parasite development to perform genetic analyses. To characterise genes of interest, we have developed efficient transgenesis tools to manipulate mosquito genomes by CRISPR/Cas9 and we further work on gene drive strategies as a way to introduce a character of interest in mosquito populations. In addition, we are interested in the manipulation of mosquito and parasite redox homeostasis with novel insecticidal and antimalarial compounds as means for intervention strategies to reduce parasite transmission.

ParaFrap project and potential for collaboration:

Using different models of infections, we selected mosquito lines that differ in their ability to carry parasites and we identified mosquito genes that are anti- or pro-parasitic upon infection with murine and human malaria parasites, respectively. Additionaly, using mutagenesis, we generated murine malaria parasites that are able to infect a normally resistant mosquito line. Sequencing of these parasites is currently on-going to identify mutations that could lead to the phenotype. We aim to functionally characterise these mosquito and parasite genes involved in mosquito/parasite interactions, and understand how they have evolved in field populations and in different species.

Fields of expertise, interests & facilities: mosquito genetics, mosquito transgenesis, transmission-blocking strategies, mosquito redox homeostasis, BSL3 insectary for mosquito infections with human pathogens.

Top 5 publications of the last 5 years

1. Feng L, Lanfranchi DA, Cotos L, Cesar-Rodo E, Ehrhardt K, Goetz AA, Zimmermann H, Fenaille F, Blandin SA, Davioud-Charvet E. (2018) Synthesis of plasmodione metabolites and 13C enriched plasmodione as chemical tools for drug metabolism investigation. Org. Biomol. Chem. 16:2647-2665. doi: 10.1039/C8OB00227D

2.Volohonsky G, Hopp A-K, Saenger M, Soichot J, Scholze H, Boch J, Blandin SA, Marois E. (2017) Transgenic expression of the anti-parasitic factor TEP1 in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. PLoS Pathog.  17;13(1):e1006113. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006113

3. Krieg R, Jortzik E, Goetz A-A, Blandin S, Wittlin S, Elhabiri M, Rahbari M, Nuryyeva S, Voigt K, Dahse H-M, Brakhage A, Beckmann S, Quack T, Grevelding CG, Pinkerton AB, Schönecker B, Burrows J, Davioud-Charvet E, Rahlfs S, Becker K. (2017) Arylmethylamino steroids as antiparasitic agents. Nat Commun,  8:14478. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14478

4. Volohonsky G, Terenzi O, Soichot J, Naujoks DA, Nolan T, Windbichler N, Kapps D, Smidler AL, Vittu A, Costa G, Steinert S, Levashina EA, Blandin SA, Marois E. (2015) Tools for Anopheles gambiae Transgenesis. G3. pii: g3.115.016808. doi: 10.1534/g3.115.016808

5. Neafsey DE, Waterhouse RM, Abai MR, Aganezov SS, Alekseyev MA, Allen JE, Amon J, Arcà B, Arensburger P, Artemov G, Assour LA, Basseri H, Berlin A, Birren BW, Blandin SA, et al. , Besansky NJ. (2015) Mosquito genomics. Highly evolvable malaria vectors: the genomes of 16 Anopheles mosquitoes. Science. 347:1258522. doi: 10.1126/science.1258522