How mosquitoes time their bites

How mosquitoes time their bites

Author: PNAS February 9, 2026 Duration: 9:53

Molecular regulation of mosquito biting timing

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Laura Duvall introduces a potential pathway for disrupting the biting behavior of mosquitoes.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[00:57] Mosquito neuroscientist Laura Duvall introduces us to the normal biting behavior of mosquitoes.
•[02:46] She tells why the biting behavior of the Aedes aegypti mosquito is of particular interest.
•[03:24] Duvall describes findings regarding how mosquitoes' responses to CO2 vary over times of day.
•[05:37] She introduces the PDF peptide that might be regulating timing of biting behavior and explains how losing that peptide changed mosquitoes' behavior.
•[08:07] Duvall talks about the takeaways from the study for control of mosquito-borne illnesses.
•[08:53] She lists the caveats and limitations of the study.
•[09:26] Conclusion.

About Our Guest:

Laura Duvall
Assistant Professor
Columbia University

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2520826122

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Tune into PNAS Science Sessions for a direct line to the people shaping modern science. Produced by PNAS, this podcast offers more than just summaries of published research; it’s where you hear the candid, often personal stories behind the headlines. Each episode features concise conversations with the researchers themselves-from emerging voices to established Academy members-alongside the policymakers whose decisions are informed by this work. You’ll get a genuine sense of the questions that drive these experts, the unexpected hurdles they face in their labs and field studies, and why their findings matter right now. The scope is deliberately wide, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of science itself, covering discoveries that range from microscopic processes to planetary-scale phenomena. This isn't about dry lectures, but about capturing the human endeavor of investigation. For anyone curious about how science actually unfolds and wants to understand the context of breakthroughs as they happen, this podcast serves as an essential, engaging resource. It connects the dots between a published paper in a prestigious journal and the real-world implications that ripple out from it.
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