Population Biology of African Malaria Vectors

描述（由申请人提供）：疟疾是非洲的一个主要公共卫生问题。尽管蚊子媒介在疟疾传播中很重要，但非洲国家医学昆虫学研究的总体能力特别薄弱。这项培训赠款的目标是通过促进来自疟疾流行非洲国家的有前途的年轻科学家的职业发展和向非洲科学家转让新技术，提高肯尼亚和其他非洲国家对疟疾病媒的研究能力。培训将集中在蚊子种群生物学的3个关键领域：非洲疟疾病媒的种群调节、使用生物杀虫剂控制幼虫和转基因蚊子的种群生物学。培训将主要在肯尼亚进行，并将包括对撒哈拉以南国家的博士生、博士后的长期培训和对初级大学教员和研究科学家的短期培训。将在肯尼亚举办一系列短期培训班，以提高受训人员在数据管理、生物统计和地理信息技术方面的技能。该培训项目还将支持学员赴美接受研究型培训。该研究培训计划将填补非洲医学昆虫学研究的两大空白：1)加强病媒生态学和遗传学研究；2)促进地理信息技术和分子生物学技术与实地疟疾病媒研究的整合。这个培训计划将通过为非洲科学家提供新技术、为他们提供发展有价值的全非洲和国际联系的机会、以及使他们能够发展独立或合作的研究项目，对非洲科学家的职业发展作出重大贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Malaria is a major public health problem in Africa. Despite the importance of mosquito vectors in malaria transmission, the overall capacity for research in medical entomology in African countries is particularly weak. The goal of this training grant is to enhance the research capacity on malaria vectors in Kenya and other African countries by advancing the career development of promising young scientists from malaria-endemic African countries and by transferring new technologies to African scientists. The training will be focused on 3 critical areas of mosquito population biology: population regulation of African malaria vectors, larval control using biological insecticides, and population biology of transgenic mosquitoes. The training will be conducted primarily in Kenya and will involve long-term training of Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows and short-term training of junior university faculty and research scientists from sub-Saharan countries. A series of short training courses will be given in Kenya to enhance the skills of the trainees in data management, biostatistics and geographic information technology. The training program will also support trainees to come to the US for research-oriented training. The research training program will fill 2 major gaps in medical entomology research in Africa by: 1) strengthening research on vector ecology and genetics, and 2) promoting the integration of geographic information technology and molecular biology techniques with field-based malaria vector research. This training program will contribute significantly to the career development of African scientists by equipping them with new technologies, by providing opportunities for them to develop valuable Africa-wide and international linkages, and by enabling them to develop independent or collaborative research projects.