PhD student Nicole Nazario-Maldonado (left) and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Borja Lopez Gutierrez (right)

SECVBD PhD student Nicole Nazario-Maldonado, and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Borja Lopez Gutierrez, both part of center director Dr. Rhoel Dinglasan’s laboratory, won best presentation awards at the University of Florida Infectious Diseases and Immunology retreat. Ms. Nazario-Maldonado’s presentation on “Molecular profiling of Mosquito Associated Viruses in Aedes aegypti from the dengue-endemic Island, Puerto Rico” highlighted the importance of studying mosquito associated viruses to better understand arbovirus transmission risk, while Dr. Lopez Gutierrez’s work, “Role of the female gametocyte biomarker PSSP17 in P. falciparum transmission”, stressed the need for new and improved malaria parasite diagnostics to achieve malaria eradication goals.