Janet Hemingway

I trained originally as a geneticist, and applied this training and the emerging techniques of molecular biology to elucidate the mechanisms of insecticide resistance in mosquito vectors of disease, at a time when these insects were far less tractable than the model organism Drosophila. I was then able to translate this information into simple biochemical and molecular assays that could be used to monitor the selection and spread of resistance in operational settings. With these tools in place, my laboratory designed and ran a seven year study to demonstrate the optimum resistance management strategy for a national malaria control programme to delay resistance, while still effectively reducing human disease prevalence. My laboratory was involved in the sequencing and analysis of the first mosquito genome and subsequently had significant roles in the Aedes and Culex genome sequencing and analysis. This allowed us to establish the full range of potential detoxification genes in mosquitoes and set up microarray analysis to reduce the time needed to identify the causal metabolic mechanism in an emerging resistance from years to months. Latterly I have used my extensive links with industry to found the first vector control product development partnership, the IVCC, stimulating the development of the first new public health pesticides for decades.