Centre for Applied Entomology and Parasitology

Janet Meredith has been a senior research fellow within Professor Paul Eggleston's molecular entomology research group since 2000. She graduated with a BSc (joint hons) in Genetics and Microbiology from University College Swansea (1973) and went on to work as a research assistant in molecular genetics at Swansea and molecular virology at Reading. During her time at Reading University, Janet completed a PhD (1999), studying replication of the picornavirus genome under the supervision of Professor Jeffrey Almond and Dr David Evans. Whilst at Keele Janet has been involved in two major areas of research. Initially she was interested in the expression of mosquito immune genes, focusing particularly on the Defensin genes of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. However, following success within the group using the site specific phi C31 integration system to generate transgenics of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, Janet is now focusing on the efficient use of this transformation system in Anopheles gambiae.

• Meredith, J.M., Hurd, H., Lehane, M.J. and Eggleston, P. (2008) The malaria vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae expresses a suite of larval-specific defensin genes.Manuscript in press.
• Meredith, J.M., Munks, R.J., Grail, W., Hurd, H., Eggleston, P. and Lehane, M.J. (2006) A novel association between clustered NF-kappaB and C/EBP binding sites is required for immune regulation of mosquito Defensin genes. Insect Mol Biol, 15, 393-401.
• Nimmo, D.D., Alphey, L., Meredith, J.M. and Eggleston, P. (2006) High efficiency site-specific genetic engineering of the mosquito genome. Insect Mol Biol, 15, 129-136.
• Warr, E., Meredith, J.M., Nimmo, D.D., Basu, S., Hurd, H. and Eggleston, P. (2006) A tapeworm molecule manipulates vitellogenin expression in the beetle Tenebrio molitor. Insect Mol Biol, 15, 497-505.
• Macadam, A.J., Ferguson, G., Stone, D.M., Meredith, J., Knowlson, S., Auda, G., Almond, J.W. and Minor, P.D. (2006) Rational design of genetically stable, live-attenuated poliovirus vaccines of all three serotypes: relevance to poliomyelitis eradication. J Virol, 80, 8653-8663.
• Ding, Y., Hawkes, N., Meredith, J., Eggleston, P., Hemingway, J. and Ranson, H. (2004) Characterisation of the promoters of Epsilon glutathione transferases in the mosquito Anopheles gambiae and their response to oxidative stress. Biochem J.