The Armbruster Lab

Georgetown University

How do mosquitoes adapt to new environments and survive seasons that interrupt growth? The lab studies the interaction between ecological conditions and genetic mechanisms in natural populations, using container-breeding mosquitoes as experimental systems. Researchers combine field ecology, quantitative and population genetics, and molecular biology to investigate evolutionary change. Research themes include range expansion, adaptation genomics and diapause, a period of developmental arrest. Recent doctoral work examined how temperature affects survival, energy use and development in dormant Asian tiger mosquitoes, linking seasonal biology with adaptation.