Lilian Mbaisi Ang'ang'o MSc

Lilian works as a research assistant at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Kenya. She holds an MSc. degree in Bioinformatics from the University of Nairobi. Malaria and Vector biology are her passionate areas of research. It has clearly recurred over time that challenges exist in vector management, vaccine development and antimalarials due to evolutionary changes favouring parasite or vector survival. Recent research has focused on looking for symbiotic interactions such as the study of Wolbachia, Microsporidia and Spiroplasma for protective properties. She is currently trying to further understand symbiotic interactions in anopheline mosquitoes that would be beneficial in fighting the Plasmodium parasite. She is part of the Symbiovector Team at icipe-DUDUVILLE Campus, led by Dr. Jeremy Herren. The team has been able to isolate and characterise a novel microsporidian symbiont that had little host fitness cost to the vector and conferred protection against Plasmodium infections both in the wild and under controlled laboratory environments. Lilian looks forward to carrying out in-depth transcriptomics and genomics studies on the same discipline.