The mosquito's genome: Collins, Besansky, and the Eck Institute

2002 — today

Reading the malaria mosquito: Notre Dame's infectious-disease line runs from the Vector Biology Laboratory of George B. Craig Jr.'s generation — more than four decades of work, in the university's summary — to the October of 2002, when Science published "The Genome Sequence of the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae," the first reading of the genome of the insect that carries malaria. Frank H. Collins, who had come to Notre Dame in 1997 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stands among the paper's senior authors, and the university's account names him one of the key figures in the sequencing; with the malaria parasite's genome published in Nature the same month and the human genome already read, all three genomes of the malaria cycle stood open at once. The Notre Dame program built the infrastructure on the sequence: Collins's laboratory directed VectorBase, the National Institutes of Health bioinformatics resource holding the genomes of arthropod disease vectors for the world's researchers, and directed the multi-institution Malaria Transmission Consortium.

The sequence work continued under Nora J. Besansky: in 2010 back-to-back Science papers from her team, with Besansky coordinating the sequencing effort and Collins among the contributors, presented the genomic evidence that A. gambiae is dividing into two species with different traits — a finding that changes how control measures must be aimed — and Eck researchers co-authored the same season's genome of Culex quinquefasciatus, the southern house mosquito. The program's institutional frame is the Eck money: in April 2008 the university announced a $20 million gift from the estate of alumnus Frank E. Eck to its Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, the center renamed for the Eck family; the university-wide Eck Institute for Global Health was founded in 2010, as the institute's own 2016 account dates it — a College of Science news account dates the institute's establishment to 2008, the gift's year, and the variant stands. Bernard Nahlen, formerly deputy coordinator of the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative, has directed the institute since December 2017.

Sources:

1. Holt et al., "The Genome Sequence of the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae," Science 298 (4 October 2002): 129–149 — the genome paper itself, Frank H. Collins among its authors; PubMed record 12364791.
2. Eck Institute for Global Health news (14 January 2009) — Collins as one of the key figures in the 2002 sequencing; his 1997 arrival from the CDC; the VectorBase directorship and the Malaria Transmission Consortium.
3. University of Notre Dame news (10 December 2010) — the Besansky-led 2010 Science studies and the evidence of A. gambiae dividing into two species; Besansky coordinating the sequencing effort; the Culex quinquefasciatus genome paper; the Vector Biology lineage of Craig and Weinstein and work "for more than four decades."
4. University of Notre Dame news (3 April 2008) — the $20 million gift from the estate of Frank E. Eck to the Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, renamed for the Eck family.
5. Notre Dame Research (19 May 2016) — the Eck Institute "founded in 2010," with Miller named an original member; College of Science news (2021) — the institute "established in 2008" and the $20 million Eck endowment, the variant carried in the entry; University of Notre Dame news (October 2017) — Bernard Nahlen's appointment as director effective 1 December 2017.