As part of my doctorate thesis, I have come to the University of Neuchâtel to work for one year on the sensory physiology and behaviour of Lutzomyia longipalpis, which is the main vector of visceral leishmaniasis in Latin America. This sandfly exhibits an opportunistic behavior when seeking a blood meal and can feed on a wide range of animals including dogs, cows, pigs, horses, birds, humans and opossum. Female sandflies are attracted to a combination of host odors and the male sex pheromone, and when these semiochemicals are present together attraction is greatly enhanced compared to the sex pheromone or host odour presented alone. Volatile semiochemicals as well as sex and oviposition pheromones can be perceived via olfactory sensilla (ascoid sensillum) on the antennae of L. longipalpis. I plan to record the electrophysiological responses of receptor cells within olfactory sensilla on the antenna of female Lutzomyia sandflies to a range of odours involved in the attraction of sandflies to hosts and to sex pheromone components from males. Then it is planned to test the behavioral responses of Lutzomyia in a wind tunnel to the identified chemostimuli and to test the hypothesis that host odours and pheromone components can act together in modifying the behaviors of these vectors of disease.

Higher Education:

1995-1998: Faculty of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), B.Sc. in Genetic.

1999-2001: Master in Cell and Molecular Biology - Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/ FIOCRUZ. Thesis title: Ultrastructure of male sex pheromone glands in abdominal tergites of five Lutzomyia (Diptera: Psychodidae) species.

2001 to date: Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology - Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/ FIOCRUZ. Thesis title: Studies of the male sex pheromone glands and of the olfactory sensilla of Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae).