Becky Johnson
@entomososwin.bsky.social
K99 Postdoctoral Fellow at CAES in Medical Entomology 🦟 When not in lab I enjoy cooking, cocktails, birding, backpacking, mushrooming, and all things outdoors. | she/her
https://www.rebeccamjohnson.me/
https://www.rebeccamjohnson.me/
Reposted by Becky Johnson
Implications of successive blood feeding on #dengue virus inhibition by Wolbachia in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
@entomososwin.bsky.social @mallerybreban.bsky.social @brackneylab.bsky.social @chantalvogels.bsky.social @yaleemd.bsky.social
@entomososwin.bsky.social @mallerybreban.bsky.social @brackneylab.bsky.social @chantalvogels.bsky.social @yaleemd.bsky.social
Implications of successive blood feeding on Wolbachia-mediated dengue virus inhibition in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes - Nature Communications
Dengue virus transmission by Ae. aegypti mosquitoes poses a significant public health threat, necessitating innovative control strategies. Here, the authors demonstrate that, while successive blood feeding increases earlier dengue virus dissemination, the inhibitory effects of Wolbachia remain strong, highlighting Wolbachia’s potential to disrupt dengue transmission under natural feeding conditions.
bit.ly
October 3, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Implications of successive blood feeding on #dengue virus inhibition by Wolbachia in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
@entomososwin.bsky.social @mallerybreban.bsky.social @brackneylab.bsky.social @chantalvogels.bsky.social @yaleemd.bsky.social
@entomososwin.bsky.social @mallerybreban.bsky.social @brackneylab.bsky.social @chantalvogels.bsky.social @yaleemd.bsky.social
Reposted by Becky Johnson
Jane Goodall was my first childhood hero, as I loved animals as a kid and was inspired by her story. I still remember the National Geographic specials about her. RIP.
October 1, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Jane Goodall was my first childhood hero, as I loved animals as a kid and was inspired by her story. I still remember the National Geographic specials about her. RIP.
Reposted by Becky Johnson
Some of you may remember my rant about getting surprise charged $653 for a medically necessary ultrasound to screen for the cancer that killed my mother.
Well, I wrote about it, and now my bad experience has been made into a cartoon for The Out of Network Network!
open.substack.com/pub/outofnet...
Well, I wrote about it, and now my bad experience has been made into a cartoon for The Out of Network Network!
open.substack.com/pub/outofnet...
Paying $653 to See if I Had the Disease That Killed My Mother
Written by Mara Wilson / Illustrated by Emily Flake
open.substack.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Some of you may remember my rant about getting surprise charged $653 for a medically necessary ultrasound to screen for the cancer that killed my mother.
Well, I wrote about it, and now my bad experience has been made into a cartoon for The Out of Network Network!
open.substack.com/pub/outofnet...
Well, I wrote about it, and now my bad experience has been made into a cartoon for The Out of Network Network!
open.substack.com/pub/outofnet...
So great to finally have this out!!
Very happy to have @entomososwin.bsky.social's thesis work finally published! Becky has been having an incredible month!
parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Expression of endogenous Anopheles gambiae microRNAs using an Anopheles gambiae densovirus (AgDNV) intronic expression system - Parasites & Vectors
Background Anopheles gambiae densovirus (AgDNV) is a highly species-specific parvovirus that reaches high titers in adult Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes with few transcriptomic effects and minimal signi...
parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com
August 19, 2025 at 5:32 PM
So great to finally have this out!!
Today I found out that my NIH NIAID K99 looking at mosquito basement membrane repair processes was funded!!! Thank you to my mentor @brackneylab.bsky.social, my co-mentor Andrea Page-McCaw, my colleagues & letter writers, the outstanding people at NIH, and everyone else who has been so supportive!!
August 5, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Today I found out that my NIH NIAID K99 looking at mosquito basement membrane repair processes was funded!!! Thank you to my mentor @brackneylab.bsky.social, my co-mentor Andrea Page-McCaw, my colleagues & letter writers, the outstanding people at NIH, and everyone else who has been so supportive!!
Reposted by Becky Johnson
NEWS: The @entsocamerica.bsky.social Governing Board has elected nine new Fellows of the Society for 2025: Joanna Chiu, Laura Harrington, John Heraty, Margaret Mayfield, Bob Peterson, Paula Shrewsbury, Andrew Suarez, Michael Ulyshen, and Jessica Ware. MORE: entsoc.org/news/press-r...
August 4, 2025 at 8:45 PM
NEWS: The @entsocamerica.bsky.social Governing Board has elected nine new Fellows of the Society for 2025: Joanna Chiu, Laura Harrington, John Heraty, Margaret Mayfield, Bob Peterson, Paula Shrewsbury, Andrew Suarez, Michael Ulyshen, and Jessica Ware. MORE: entsoc.org/news/press-r...
Reposted by Becky Johnson
Our first Wolbachia paper now published in Nature Communications! 🦟 Check out Becky's thread! 👇
So glad to finally have this out with co-author @mallerybreban.bsky.social and very thankful for the many amazing people who contributed to this study and provided materials and input! 🦟🦠1/12 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Implications of successive blood feeding on Wolbachia-mediated dengue virus inhibition in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes - Nature Communications
Dengue virus transmission by Ae. aegypti mosquitoes poses a significant public health threat, necessitating innovative control strategies. Here, the authors demonstrate that, while successive blood fe...
www.nature.com
July 30, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Our first Wolbachia paper now published in Nature Communications! 🦟 Check out Becky's thread! 👇
So glad to finally have this out with co-author @mallerybreban.bsky.social and very thankful for the many amazing people who contributed to this study and provided materials and input! 🦟🦠1/12 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Implications of successive blood feeding on Wolbachia-mediated dengue virus inhibition in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes - Nature Communications
Dengue virus transmission by Ae. aegypti mosquitoes poses a significant public health threat, necessitating innovative control strategies. Here, the authors demonstrate that, while successive blood fe...
www.nature.com
July 30, 2025 at 5:42 PM
So glad to finally have this out with co-author @mallerybreban.bsky.social and very thankful for the many amazing people who contributed to this study and provided materials and input! 🦟🦠1/12 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Becky Johnson
Likewise thrilled to have been able to contribute to an amazing team effort on this! 🦟
Thrilled to be a part of this study on Wolbachia and multiple blood feeding. Now published!
rdcu.be/eyqaG
rdcu.be/eyqaG
Implications of successive blood feeding on Wolbachia-mediated dengue virus inhibition in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
Nature Communications - Dengue virus transmission by Ae. aegypti mosquitoes poses a significant public health threat, necessitating innovative control strategies. Here, the authors demonstrate...
rdcu.be
July 30, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Likewise thrilled to have been able to contribute to an amazing team effort on this! 🦟
Reposted by Becky Johnson
Thrilled to be a part of this study on Wolbachia and multiple blood feeding. Now published!
rdcu.be/eyqaG
rdcu.be/eyqaG
Implications of successive blood feeding on Wolbachia-mediated dengue virus inhibition in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
Nature Communications - Dengue virus transmission by Ae. aegypti mosquitoes poses a significant public health threat, necessitating innovative control strategies. Here, the authors demonstrate...
rdcu.be
July 30, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Thrilled to be a part of this study on Wolbachia and multiple blood feeding. Now published!
rdcu.be/eyqaG
rdcu.be/eyqaG
Reposted by Becky Johnson
🦟" #Mosquito #immune cells enhance #dengue and #Zika virus infection in #Aedes aegypti" by David R. Hall, @entomososwin.bsky.social, @brackneylab.bsky.social, @vectorimmunity.bsky.social et al. in @natcomms.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mosquito immune cells enhance dengue and Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti - Nature Communications
Infection of mosquito immune cells by dengue and Zika virus enhances the spread of virus infection to mosquito tissues, such as the salivary glands, to promote virus transmission and highlights conser...
www.nature.com
July 3, 2025 at 9:31 PM
🦟" #Mosquito #immune cells enhance #dengue and #Zika virus infection in #Aedes aegypti" by David R. Hall, @entomososwin.bsky.social, @brackneylab.bsky.social, @vectorimmunity.bsky.social et al. in @natcomms.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was such a fun study with great collaborators! Glad to have it finally out. 🎉 We found that hemocytes actually help viruses disseminate to new organs within the mosquito.
Excited to share our latest collaborative work with @entomososwin.bsky.social @brackneylab.bsky.social looking at the role of mosquito immune cells in virus infection. It turns out that these cells help disseminate virus infection, increasing the potential for virus transmission rdcu.be/euiZt
Mosquito immune cells enhance dengue and Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti
Nature Communications - Infection of mosquito immune cells by dengue and Zika virus enhances the spread of virus infection to mosquito tissues, such as the salivary glands, to promote virus...
rdcu.be
July 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM
This was such a fun study with great collaborators! Glad to have it finally out. 🎉 We found that hemocytes actually help viruses disseminate to new organs within the mosquito.
Reposted by Becky Johnson
Despite all the shit going on, we have to celebrate our victories. New publication with @entomososwin.bsky.social and @vectorimmunity.bsky.social showing that hemocytes play a central role in disseminating flaviviruses to secondary tissues potentially functioning as a Trojan Horse(TBD)
rdcu.be/euj4g
rdcu.be/euj4g
Mosquito immune cells enhance dengue and Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti
Nature Communications - Infection of mosquito immune cells by dengue and Zika virus enhances the spread of virus infection to mosquito tissues, such as the salivary glands, to promote virus...
rdcu.be
July 1, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Despite all the shit going on, we have to celebrate our victories. New publication with @entomososwin.bsky.social and @vectorimmunity.bsky.social showing that hemocytes play a central role in disseminating flaviviruses to secondary tissues potentially functioning as a Trojan Horse(TBD)
rdcu.be/euj4g
rdcu.be/euj4g
Reposted by Becky Johnson
New RasgonLab paper (ahead of print) published in Autophagy!
By Dr. Sujit Pujhari & other former RasgonLab members
"Sindbis virus is suppressed in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti by Atg6/BECN1 (autophagy-related 6)-mediated activation of autophagy"
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
By Dr. Sujit Pujhari & other former RasgonLab members
"Sindbis virus is suppressed in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti by Atg6/BECN1 (autophagy-related 6)-mediated activation of autophagy"
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Sindbis virus is suppressed in the yellow fever mosquito aedes aegypti by Atg6/BECN1 (autophagy-related 6)-mediated activation of autophagy
Macroautophagy/autophagy is a critical modulator of pathogen invasion response in vertebrates and invertebrates. However, how it affects mosquito-borne viral pathogens that significantly burden pub...
www.tandfonline.com
June 27, 2025 at 11:31 AM
New RasgonLab paper (ahead of print) published in Autophagy!
By Dr. Sujit Pujhari & other former RasgonLab members
"Sindbis virus is suppressed in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti by Atg6/BECN1 (autophagy-related 6)-mediated activation of autophagy"
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
By Dr. Sujit Pujhari & other former RasgonLab members
"Sindbis virus is suppressed in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti by Atg6/BECN1 (autophagy-related 6)-mediated activation of autophagy"
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Becky Johnson
🧪 Detailed data viz NYT article, out today, on the extent of funding cuts at the National Science Foundation.
This "broken pie chart" is neat & new to me: Powerfully shows the slowdown in new NSF awards across areas.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
This "broken pie chart" is neat & new to me: Powerfully shows the slowdown in new NSF awards across areas.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
May 22, 2025 at 3:59 PM
🧪 Detailed data viz NYT article, out today, on the extent of funding cuts at the National Science Foundation.
This "broken pie chart" is neat & new to me: Powerfully shows the slowdown in new NSF awards across areas.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
This "broken pie chart" is neat & new to me: Powerfully shows the slowdown in new NSF awards across areas.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
No photo but saw my first one this morning!
Migration is still ongoing! Many migrants are still en route to their breeding grounds and some later migrants are just beginning to pass through migration hotspots, like the Mourning Warbler. Their migration extends into early June!
Have you seen a Mourning Warbler lately? Tag this account!
Have you seen a Mourning Warbler lately? Tag this account!
May 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
No photo but saw my first one this morning!
Reposted by Becky Johnson
Reposted by Becky Johnson
TODAY IS THE DAY! 🧪☀️⬇️
Join us at the Lincoln Memorial or your local site to Stand Up for Science!
Join us at the Lincoln Memorial or your local site to Stand Up for Science!
March 7, 2025 at 11:44 AM
TODAY IS THE DAY! 🧪☀️⬇️
Join us at the Lincoln Memorial or your local site to Stand Up for Science!
Join us at the Lincoln Memorial or your local site to Stand Up for Science!
Reposted by Becky Johnson
WHERE WILL YOU BE TOMORROW?
March 6, 2025 at 3:11 PM
WHERE WILL YOU BE TOMORROW?
Reposted by Becky Johnson
New paper published with the Benoit lab at the University of Cincinnati!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Multiple blood feeding bouts in mosquitoes allow for prolonged survival and are predicted to increase viral transmission during dry periods
Dry conditions increase blood feeding in mosquitoes, but it is unknown if dehydration-induced bloodmeals are increased beyond what is necessary for re…
www.sciencedirect.com
February 21, 2025 at 7:43 PM
New paper published with the Benoit lab at the University of Cincinnati!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Becky Johnson
A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter.
By @avaskham.bsky.social
bit.ly/3X8ngz8
By @avaskham.bsky.social
bit.ly/3X8ngz8
Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze
NIH-related updates to the Federal Register, which are required for the scheduling of study sections and advisory councils, are on hold indefinitely, according to an email reviewed by <i>The Transmitt...
www.thetransmitter.org
February 18, 2025 at 11:23 PM
A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter.
By @avaskham.bsky.social
bit.ly/3X8ngz8
By @avaskham.bsky.social
bit.ly/3X8ngz8
Reposted by Becky Johnson
I escaped poverty because I am a scientist.
And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation.
A 🧵:
And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation.
A 🧵:
February 18, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I escaped poverty because I am a scientist.
And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation.
A 🧵:
And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation.
A 🧵:
Reposted by Becky Johnson
I’ve been seething and grieving since yesterday’s Friday Night Massacre of NIH overheads, a seeming bit of bureaucratic trivial that will in fact destroy the US university system if unchecked. But I want to get away from budgets and rate breakdowns and F&A percentages for a moment.
Humor me?
Humor me?
February 8, 2025 at 9:41 PM
I’ve been seething and grieving since yesterday’s Friday Night Massacre of NIH overheads, a seeming bit of bureaucratic trivial that will in fact destroy the US university system if unchecked. But I want to get away from budgets and rate breakdowns and F&A percentages for a moment.
Humor me?
Humor me?
Reposted by Becky Johnson
This mosquito is Uranotaenia sapphirina. Most of the time it looks pretty ordinary (right). But get the light just so (left) and it has a little surprise.
(The other surprise is that it feeds on leeches and earthworms. No, really!)
(The other surprise is that it feeds on leeches and earthworms. No, really!)
February 7, 2025 at 4:27 PM
This mosquito is Uranotaenia sapphirina. Most of the time it looks pretty ordinary (right). But get the light just so (left) and it has a little surprise.
(The other surprise is that it feeds on leeches and earthworms. No, really!)
(The other surprise is that it feeds on leeches and earthworms. No, really!)