Laura Dickson, PhD

Dr. Dickson is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. She is originally from California and received her B.S. at the University of California, Davis. Following her undergraduate degree she worked as a Fulbright Fellow in Kisumu, Kenya and later completed her PhD at Colorado State University in the lab of Bill Black studying the population genetics and vector competence of Ae. aegypti from Senegal. She carried out her postdoctoral training in the lab of Louis Lambrechts at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France where she studied the carry over effects of the Ae. aegypti larvae - bacteria interactions on adult traits related to vectorial capacity. She did a brief stint in biotech where she led the initiatives to develop novel strategies to curb arbovirus transmission through bacterial delivery of various small molecules to mosquitoes. Her lab at UTMB will focus on understanding how different ecologies and environments shape the interactions between Ae. aegypti and its microbiome and between Ae. aegypti and arboviruses. Her work as a graduate student, as a postdoc, and now as an Assistant Professor is based on establishing a strong connection between the hypotheses we generate and test in lab and in the field.