Vish Dhokiya is a PhD Student on the MRC funded Doctoral Training program working between the Vector and Tropical Disease Biology Departments at LSTM. His current project is focused on better understanding the interaction between the Anopheles mosquito, the sole vector of Malaria and the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia, which has shown promise in disease intervention programmes due to its pathogen-blocking abilities. He collaborates regularly with international partners in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as with researchers at the University of Warwick, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Cambridge.
Prior to starting his PhD, Vish worked as a Research Assistant at LSTM using cutting edge methods to disentangle mosquito – microbiome interactions. He completed his MSc in Medical Entomology for Disease Control at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2019, following which he worked at The Pirbright Institute developing a novel underdominance gene drive system in Aedes aegypti. Outside of research, Vish is an avid reader and a regular in the Liverpool badminton leagues, serving on the committee of South Liverpool Badminton Club.