Katherine Mosquera

About me

I am an Ecuadorian vector biologist with expertise in kissing bugs and mosquitoes. I got my Bachelor's degree in Biotechnological Engineering at Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas – ESPE (Ecuador).

I obtained my Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Health Sciences with an emphasis on Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at René Rachou Institute – FIOCRUZ (Brazil). During those years, I was part of the Vector Behavior and Pathogen Interaction group headed by Dr. Marcelo Lorenzo. My studies explored several aspects of the behavior and chemical ecology behind Rhodnius spp. shelter exploitation and Aedes aegypti oviposition-site seeking.

​In 2022, I joined the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Uppsala University as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Olle Terenius' group. My studies focused on evaluating the attractiveness of high-efficiency traps by estimating the distance from which Anopheles mosquitoes travel to these traps by analyzing their unique bacterial profiles as a proxy of where they have been previously.

​With my background and the opportunity to join the AnkarklevLab, I am devoted to further developing my computational biology skills and contributing to implementing big-data integration tools to predict host competence for vector-borne diseases.