First UK grant

I have received my first UK funding – a Seed Award in Science from the Wellcome Trust! It will fund a 2-year project on chemosensation in mosquito larvae. I am thus looking for a researcher to join my lab to work on this project – please contact me if interested, and also please have a look at our lab website insectneurolab.com.

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New job and new lab website

I will be joining the Department of Biosciences at Durham University, UK, as an Assistant Professor from the 1st of April 2019! I made a new lab website: insectneurolab.com, and most work-related updates will now be there – check it out!

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Our new mosquito imaging paper

…now on bioRxiv:

Ali John Afify, Joshua F Betz, Olena Riabinina, Christopher John Potter

Commonly used insect repellents hide human odors from Anopheles mosquitoes

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SLU visit

Last Monday and Tuesday I spent at the SLU in Alnarp, Sweden on the invitation of Rickard Ignell. It was great to meet people from Rickard’s group and to discuss mossies with them! Thank you for the invitation and for hosting me!:)

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ESA conference

Last week I spent in wonderful Vancouver, attending the ESA 2018 conference and giving a talk about 3D models of mossies. My first time at ESA and in Canada – both were great, a lot of mosquito talks and genetic methods of pest and vector control. Please invite me again 😀

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Split-QF paper

Very happy to have our split-QF paper on bioRxiv now:

Riabinina O, Vernon SW, Dickson BJ, Baines RA.

Split-QF system for fine-tuned transgene expression in Drosophila. 

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Travel grants

Just learnt that I have got a travel grant from the Physiological society and another one from the ESA to give a talk at this year’s ESA meeting in Vancouver – Thank you! 😀

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European Researchers Night 2018

Last Friday I took part in the Europe-wide science outreach event European Researchers Night #ERN2018 . We brought flies, mosquito brains and microscopes to the Manchester Museum and let the visitors play 🙂

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First bioRxiv preprint

My first bioRxiv preprint is live now! A collaboration with Natalie Hempel de Ibarra from Exeter on how bees approach targets and how the approach path determines what the bees learn.

Approach direction prior to landing explains patterns of colour learning in bees

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ECRO conference

On the 5-8th of September I was in Würzburg attending the ECRO 2018 conference and co-chairing there a symposium on Chemosensory processing in disease vectors. I enjoyed the place, and the conference, and the co-chairing – will do again!

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