Team

Conor J. McMeniman, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Conor received his BSc with first-class honors in Parasitology in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Biological Science in 2009 from The University of Queensland, Australia. During his Ph.D., Conor established various strains of the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis from Drosophila melanogaster in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti. This work with Scott L. O’Neill yielded a novel self-sustaining strategy to block transmission of dengue and other viruses in wild mosquito populations using Wolbachia; currently deployed in 12 countries worldwide to improve public health. From 2009-2015, Conor was a Human Frontier Science Program Postdoctoral Fellow at The Rockefeller University, New York with Leslie B. Vosshall. This work illuminated the molecular mechanics of Aedes aegypti CO2 detection and the key role that multisensory integration plays in driving mosquito attraction towards humans. In September 2015, Conor joined Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, and Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. Conor is Director of the JHMRI Insectary Facility, and is jointly appointed to the Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Diego Giraldo, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Diego received his BSc in Biology in 2012 at Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. He then moved to the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he joined the International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences from 2012-2018 and obtained his MSc. and Ph.D. in Neurosciences. For his Ph.D. he joined the Department of Cellular Neurobiology at the Schwann-Schleiden Research Center and worked under the supervision of Bart Geurten and Martin Göpfert. Diego joined the McMeniman lab in January 2019 to study the neuromodulation of mosquito attraction to humans at a molecular and circuit level using functional imaging, behavioral assays and neuroanatomy. Diego has also led efforts in the McMeniman lab to develop semi-field behavioral assays to study mosquito olfactory preference towards humans in Zambia. Diego is a recipient of a 2019 Human Frontier Science Program Long-Term Postdoctoral Fellowship and 2022 Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute postdoctoral fellowship.

Stephanie Rankin-Turner, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Stephanie obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Loughborough University, UK in 2020 where she developed ambient ionization mass spectrometry techniques for biological applications. During this time she generated tools for the rapid, in situ chemical profiling of human bodily fluids, particularly focusing on the characterization of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with James Reynolds, Paul Kelly and Roberto King. Stephanie joined the McMeniman lab in September 2020, where she combines analytical chemistry techniques to characterize the human whole body volatilome with mosquito behavioral assays to better understand the chemical basis of mosquito attraction to humans. Stephanie is a recipient of a 2022 American Society for Mass Spectrometry Postdoctoral Career Development Award, and 2022 Samuel Jordan Graham Postdoctoral Award from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.  

Margot Wohl, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Margot received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego in 2020, where she explored the role of genetics and neuromodulation on aggressive behaviors in vinegar flies in the lab of Kenta Asahina at the nearby Salk Institute. Margot joined the McMeniman lab in December 2020 to study the influence of mating on the egg-laying behaviors of the yellow fever mosquito. Specifically she is interested in the olfactory preferences of female mosquitoes and how their motivation to seek out egg-laying sites changes due to reproductive state. Margot is a recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the The Molecular and Cellular Basis of Infectious Diseases (MCBID) Program (T32A1007417) from the NIH, is a 2022 L’Oreal USA For Women in Science Fellow which recognizes scientists for their research contribution as well as their commitment to serve as a role model for young women. Outside of research, she participates in science communication endeavors. She co-founded the science themed first person storytelling show, SASSY, at UCSD and she is the producer of the KPBS podcast Rad Scientist.

Christin Hardee

Undergraduate Fellow

Christin is a senior currently completing her B.A. in Public Health Studies and Natural Sciences, and M.H.S. in Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. She joined the McMeniman lab in September 2021 as an undergraduate research fellow. Christin is working under the mentorship of Diego Giraldo to engineer high-throughput video tracking assays to quantify mosquito locomotor behavior and circadian rhythms using open source hardware and software components.

Micaela Feldi

Undergraduate Fellow

Micaela is a senior currently completing her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Johns Hopkins University. She joined the McMeniman lab as an undergraduate research fellow in August 2021. Micaela is working under the mentorship of Margot Wohl to study the molecular and cellular basis of Aedes aegypti attraction to grass infusions for autocidal gravid ovitrapping.

Jinling Wu, M.S. - Ph.D. candidate, Case Western Reserve University Noor Al-Saloum B.S. (Undergraduate Fellow) - Patient Care Coordinator, Shepard’s Clinic
Kristen Alicea-Jorgenson, B.S. (Undergraduate Fellow) - Masters student, Bloomberg School of Public Health, JHU
Zakiya Carter, B.S. (Undergraduate Fellow) - M.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biomedical Sciences, University of Maryland 
Brandon Feole (Undergraduate Fellow) -  B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology candidate, JHU
Andrew Hammond, Ph.D. - CSO, Biocentis
Dorian Jackson, B.S., M.P.H. - Ph.D. candidate, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Andrew Lab
Levina Lim, M.S. - Research Associate 3, DermBiont, Inc
Emilio Miret, B.S. (Undergraduate Fellow) - Medical student, School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Gibran Nasir, M.S. - MBA candidate, Harvard Business School
Luisa Otero, Ph.D. - Staff Scientist, CDC Dengue Branch, Puerto Rico
Ana Perez-Lebron, M.S. - Senior Research Associate, Labcorp
Hebe Rosado, M.S. - Senior Associate Quality Control, Amgen
Shruti Shankar, Ph.D. - Postdoc, Brandeis University, Garrity Lab
Genevieve Tauxe, Ph.D. - Research Scientist, Department of Immunology, University of Washington, Pepper Lab Lais da Silva Pereira, Ph.D. - Staff Scientist, NIAID, Seder Lab

Alumni