Research Interests

Arthropod-borne disease affects millions of people worldwide according to the World Health Organization. Kissing bugs and mosquitoes are two insects that transmit pathogens which produce common arthropod-diseases in South America, namely Chagas and Dengue. The use of insecticides as the only control method has lead to increased resistance to pesticides. Surveillance and/or control methods are important to prevent those diseases. The use of odors for this aim has increased in the last few decades, due to their benefits.

For this reason I started to study the chemical ecology of triatomines (kissing bugs) in my PhD, specifically Triatoma infestans. I did electrophysiological assays in which I used a multichannel recording array to study the olfactory responses in brain neurons. I also designed different traps to capture kissing bugs efficiently using an attractant multimodal lure.

Nowadays, I’m working on electrophysiological and behavioral assays in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. My goal is to find odor receptors that respond to different odors, and then analyze the role of them in the behavior of this species.​