DrEmad Ibrahim M. Khater

My permanent position is Associate Professor of medical entomology and molecular biology at the Department of Entomology, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Egypt.
Currently, (December, 2014-March, 2018), I am the Director of the Public Health Pests Laboratory of Jeddah Governorate (PHPL), Saudi Arabia.
I worked as Assist. Prof. and Vice-Director of the research chair on vectors of diseases, College of Food and agricultural Sciences, King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Oct.2008-Dec.2014).

I have extended and broad professional research, teaching and training experiences (25 years) in basic and modern biology and ecology of major disease vectors for the control of vector-borne diseases. During my university career as undergraduate, postgraduate and active faculty member, I was introduced to various theoretical aspects of biology, ecology and molecular biology and phylogenetics of mosquitoes and other disease vectors. These have been supported by a broad range of practical skills in molecular and cellular biology, light and electron microscopy, functional genomics and bioinformatics and bioethics.

I obtained my PhD and Diploma of Imperial College London (DIC) from at Imperial College London (1999-2004) (Bob Sinden`s lab). During this period I obtained high-level training in the subject of malaria transmission-blocking strategies and interventions using the rodent malaria model, Plasmodium berghei and the mosquito vector Anopheles stephensi. I have good experience in various basic cellular and molecular biological and functional genomics of malaria parasite and mosquito vectors. Since the start of my PhD study I have excellent opportunities to interact and collaborate with world labs in malaria research, especially the BioMalPar-EviMalaR network of excellence.

During my work in Saudi Arabia, my main research focus has been on understanding the ecology and phylogenetics and functional genomic of major mosquito vectors of malaria and arboviruses. This has been through a number of nationally-funded research projects, mainly by the National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan (MAARIFAH), KACST and KSU, Saudi Arabia. One of the major projects was the functional genomic analysis of the nutrient sensor, the target-of-rapamycin (TOR) metabolic pathway in the mosquito vector. The research results (in-preparation for re-submission) using RNAi-gene silencing, helped to understand the potential but variable roles of mosquito TOR pathway genes (TOR and S6K) in malaria parasite infectivity to the mosquito vector and regulation of its immune responses to infection and lifespan. This project has been the means to enhance my collaboration with Prof. G. K. Christophides (Imperial College London) as a consultant to the project and Dr Janet Midega (KEMRI and Imperial College London and currently, Oxford University).
The second is the molecular phylogenetic analysis of Aedes aegypti, the major vector of arboviral diseases, and dengue vector in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, in collaboration with Prof. Jeff Powell, Yale University. The research results provide better understanding of the global diversity of Ae. aegypti and its role in dengue transmission dynamics (one manuscript submitted to Molecular Ecology and two others are in preparation for publication).
I have long good teaching and research experience with field research and control of mosquitoes and sandflies.

Through my current responsibilities as director of PHPL, Jeddah, I manage and plan various aspects of research and control of public health pests, the most important of which are Aedes and Culex mosquito vectors of arboviruses (Dengue and RFV) in Saudi Arabia. This is to understand the dynamics of disease transmission in the city and develop effective and new approaches of prevention and control and national early-warning system of disease risk using GIS/RS technology. Work also includes testing the efficacy of various pesticides used in operational control programmes.

I supervised five MSc theses and advisor to two PhD theses, all of which on the ecology, molecular biology and insecticide resistance in mosquitoes (Culex pipiens complex, Cx. tritaenyorhynchus, An. stephensi and An. arabiensis) and sandflies. Students were from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. This includes good collaboration with experts in the field such as Prof. H. Savage (the CDC, Fort Collins, USA).
I recently developed some interest in public health issues as shown in the list of publications in collaboration with Dr E. Tambo (Cameroon, Africa DIScoR).

I trust that all my academic and professional and multi-country expertise will offer me the opportunity to actively participate and serve the vision and goals for develop novel research and control tools to control the transmission of important vector-borne diseases.