Dr. Mabel Taracena is a biochemist and molecular biologist, originally from Guatemala. During her graduate studies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, she also trained at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is passionate about studying vector biology with the aim of creating efficient and sustainable vector control strategies to stop the transmission of arboviruses and malaria. Mabel formed part of the Global Rhodnius Genome Project Consortium and of several collaborative projects between Latin American Institutions with North American and European research centers. As a post-doctoral fellow at the Entomology Branch in the Center for Global Health of the CDC, one side of her current research focuses on how female mosquitoes develop the sex-dimorphisms that allow hematophagy, how the mosquito midgut matures to tolerate and deal with the digestion of blood, and the determinant factors of midgut cell regeneration in vector competence. At the same time, she studies how to create methods of vector control using these genes and pathways, using transgenic and non-transgenic approaches (such as RNAi). In October of this year, she joins the Buchon lab at Cornell. Mabel will be on the job market for faculty positions in the next few years and is always open to discussing new projects and collaborations.