Leslie B. Vosshall is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Robin Chemers Neustein Professor at The Rockefeller University, where she is the head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior. The overall goal of work in the Vosshall laboratory is to understand how complex behaviors are modulated by external chemosensory cues and internal physiological states. Working with Drosophila melanogaster flies, mosquitoes, and human subjects, Dr. Vosshall’s research has yielded new knowledge about how odor stimuli are processed and perceived. Vosshall's TEDtalk will concern the question why mosquitoes bite some people more than others, a question that we have undoubtedly all asked ourselves. Female mosquitoes spread deadly diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever by blood-feeding on an infected human and spreading pathogens to the next, healthy victim. These mosquitoes are so effective because they prefer humans over other animals. But everyone has noticed the curious effect that not all humans are equally attractive. In group situations, there always seem to be one or two individuals who are plagued with many bites, while others are completely ignored. The folklore attempting to explain why some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others is rich and complex, but few of these ideas have been put to a scientific test. Is it beer drinking? Or blood type? Or if you are male or female or young or old? How heavily you breathe or how hot your body temperature runs? In this presentation I will dissect the evidence and also discuss new scientific information about how mosquitoes hunt down a particular human for a blood meal.

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