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Celebrating World Mosquito Day and its importance

Written by Nóra Lehotai.

World Mosquito Day has been celebrated on 20th August worldwide since 1897. That day, Sir Ronald Ross, a British doctor stationed in India, made the groundbreaking discovery which enabled the future of malaria research: malaria is transmitted from mosquitos to humans only by female mosquitos. He declared this day to be known as “World Mosquito Day” and for his scientific achievements, Ross received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1902.

"On World Mosquito Day, I reflect on these annoying flies” - says Claire Sayers, a postdoctoral researcher in Oliver Billker’s group. “While only female mosquitoes bite us to produce eggs, they also feed on nectar and act as pollinators. Mosquitoes have an ecological role, but some species are vectors for deadly diseases such as malaria. Mosquitoes are known as the world’s deadliest animal with over a million people dying from mosquito-borne diseases each year. The WHO estimated that 409,000 people died from malaria in 2019. I study the transmission stages of malaria parasites to better understand how they infect mosquitoes to spread the disease."

Mozzis Claire Sayers reduced

Pictures of mosquitos taken by Claire Sayers. All credits: Claire Sayers.

A breakthrough publication from Anne-Marie Fors Connolly: Increased risk of acute myocardial infarction and stroke following COVID-19

Text written by Anne-Marie Fors Connolly and Nóra Lehotai.

Lancet ANMFC2021 30255128 heart attack concept

Photo: Myocardial infarction. Credit: Mostphotos.

A large nationwide study based on all COVID-19 patients in Sweden performed at Umeå University, concludes that the risk of acute myocardial infarction and stroke is three-fold increased the first two weeks following COVID-19. The study was published in The Lancet.

COVID-19 is a complex disease that affects many organs, and we therefore aimed to determine if COVID-19 is an acute risk factor for acute myocardial infarction and stroke, says Anne-Marie Fors Connolly who is a MIMS Clinical Research Fellow, a principal investigator at the Dept. of Clinical Microbiology, and responsible for the study.

Two MIMS postdocs awarded fellowships from the Swedish Society for Medical Research

Written by Marta Nieckarz, Atin Sharma and Nóra Lehotai. Pictures: Marta Nieckarz and Atin Sharma. Credit: Marta Nieckarz and Atin Sharma.

Marta N and Atin Sh 2021 postodc fellowship

Marta Nieckarz and Atin Sharma received a three-year fellowship for postdoctoral studies in medical science from the Swedish Society for Medical Research (Svenska Sällskapet för Medicinsk Forskning, SSMF). Marta and Atin are both postdoctoral researchers at MIMS, Umeå University. Marta is a member of the Cava lab (group leader: Felipe Cava) and Atin is a member of the Puhar lab (group leader: Andrea Puhar).

MIMS Spotlight Series: Meet Anna Överby Wernstedt

Text written by Nóra Lehotai and Anna Överby Wernstedt. Pictures: 1) Anna Överby Wernstedt, credit: Mattias Petterson, 2) Work in the Överby lab, credit: Mattias Petterson.

This is a MIMS Spotlight Series Extra article before the longer summer break. I chatted with Anna Överby Wernstedt, who is now a rather senior MIMS group leader. She was born and raised in Sweden and during her studies and career so far, she has lived in Scotland, Canada, the USA and Germany, to return to Sweden and join MIMS in 2011. Her life is full with activities, which she shares with her husband and their two children.

Can you tell us about your role at MIMS, what are you working on now? 

I am a MIMS Group Leader,but as my 9 years-period is up, I am justfinishing the leftover funding for a postdoc in my group and will take up a new association within MIMS.My research field is virology, specialized in virus-host interactions. I am supervising a group of 9 people, and we are working with tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus and other mosquito- and tick-borne flaviviruses, and during the last year, it has been a lot of COVID and SARS research which means that a third of the lab switched to work on that topic and the rest of the group continued to do TBE research.

MIMS Spotlight Series: Meet Stefanie Willekens

Text written by Nóra Lehotai and Stefanie Willekens. Pictures owned by Stefanie Willekens.

I had a chat with Stefanie, who joined the Överby lab in February 2021 as a postdoctoral fellow. However, she was no stranger to Umeå by that time. Stefanie has a Belgian nationality and has lived in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden throughout her career. She shares her life with her dog, motorbike and an impressive stiletto collection.

Can you tell us about your role at MIMS, what are you working on now? 

I am working in Anna Överby’s group, mainly on flaviviruses, but I am the only one in Anna’s group who is not a virologist. I have a
background in imaging. I did my PhD in nucleo imaging, so I am someone who is more specialized in image processing. I am developing new imaging strategies for visualizing viral spread in neurotropic viruses in the brain. In short: brain mapping of virus infection, what type of viruses and what do they cause in the brain and how to visualize that with imaging techniques, this is my main topic.