Biosketch
Dr. Anthony A. James PhD, FAAAS, FAAM, FASTMH, FESA, FRES, is Donald Bren Professor and Distinguished Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics (School of Medicine) and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry (School of Biological Sciences) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Dr. James received his Bachelor of Science and PhD degrees at UCI. He went to Boston in 1979 for postdoctoral work (Harvard Medical School and Brandeis University) and joined the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1985. He returned to UCI in 1989, where he is today. His research has been supported by multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health (USA), the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the W.M. Keck Foundation. His awards include the Nan-Yao Su (2009) Award for Innovation and Creativity in Entomology from the Entomological Society of America, co-recipient of the Premio de Investgación Médica Dr. Jorge Rosenkranz (2008), recipient of the Burroughs-Wellcome New Initiatives in Malaria Award (2000) and the Burroughs-Wellcome Scholar Award in Molecular Parasitology (1994). In 2009, he was awarded the UCI Medal. He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London (1992), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1994), Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (2011), Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2012) and Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology (2022).
Research Interests
Dr. James’ research focuses on novel, genetic-based methods for controlling transmission of mosquito-borne diseases, most notably, malaria and dengue fever. His research uses genetic and molecular-genetic tools to develop synthetic approaches for interrupting pathogen transmission by mosquitoes. Contributions include the development of mosquito transgenesis procedures, engineered genes that interfere with malaria parasite or dengue virus development in mosquitoes, a population-suppression strain based on flightless female mosquitoes and gene-drive systems to spread beneficial genes quickly through mosquito populations. In the most recent work, genetic approaches are being developed to reduce human malaria through population modification, which seeks to introduce genes into vector mosquitoes that reduce or prevent parasite transmission. The potential of Cas9/guide RNA gene-drive systems linked to dual anti-parasite effector genes to spread rapidly through mosquito populations have been demonstrated in the laboratory. Population gene-drive dynamics, transgene genetic loads and parasite suppression efficacy of a number of these strains support transmission modeling of conceptual field releases in an island setting that show meaningful human epidemiological impacts that reduce malaria incidence in optimal simulations by 50-90% within as few as 1-2 months after a series of releases, and by ≥90% within three months. These studies support the further evaluation of these or similar strains as viable candidates for future field trials in malaria-endemic regions.
Membership Type
Member
Election Year
2006
Primary Section
Section 61: Animal, Nutritional, and Applied Microbial Sciences
Secondary Section
Section 44: Microbial Biology