Emili Ziem
Emili was originally trained in Microbiology and went on to work in the private sector for several years before returning for a PhD with the NorthWest Bio programme. She is from a part of Brazil where Dengue fever is endemic and therefore has been passionate about mosquito transmitted diseases all her life.
The insect endosymbiont Wolbachia has been a successful blocker of viral diseases when introduced to the mosquito Ae.aegypti (the primary vector of Dengue Fever, Zika, Chikungunya, Yellow Fever and Mayaro Fever). Field releases of Wolbachia carrying mosquitoes have alleviated endemic areas however, the mechanism of Wolbachia’s viral blockage is not fully understood. Emili’s project aim is to understand the mechanisms of viral blockage by the Mosquito’s endosymbiont Wolbachia at the University of Glasgow. To do this she will use state-of-the-art technology in Raman Spectroscopy at Strathclyde University