Matthew Medeiros
Associate Director, C-MĀIKI (Center for Microbiome Analysis through Island Knowledge & Investigation)
Associate Professor, Pacific Biosciences Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology
Phone: (808) 956-8187
Fax: (808) 956-6984
Email: mcmedeir@hawaii.edu
Web: http://www.medeiros-hui.com/
MY RESEARCH
I am broadly interested in resolving how microorganisms underlie the functioning of multicellular organisms, ecological communities, and complex ecosystems. To this end, the Medeiros Lab Hui integrates across the scales of biology (from molecules to ecosystems) to investigate the microbial modulation of complex biological systems. We develop natural and controlled experiments in both field and laboratory settings to test key hypotheses, utilizing -omics techniques, advanced statistical analyses, and mathematical models across our science. We strive to inform our scientific inquiry through community and stakeholder outreach to better leverage our scientific expertise toward applied outcomes that communities need to achieve their environmental management priorities. We remain deeply motivated to translate our scientific discoveries into technologies that improve public health, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem function, and environmental sustainability.
A current research focus of the Medeiros Lab Hui elucidates the influence of microorganisms in the development of mosquito traits. Mosquitoes transmit a variety of infectious diseases that substantially undermine human and wildlife health. Our work links environmental microbial diversity to the performance of mosquito vectors in their environment, and their cumulative capacity to sustain disease transmission. We aim to resolve this microbial modulation of mosquito traits and leverage these effects toward mitigating mosquito-borne disease transmission that threaten human health and biodiversity conservation.
C-MĀIKI SYNERGY
I serve as the Associate Director of C- MĀIKI, with administrative roles that aim to enhance coordination on various microbiome centric research and educational initiatives among diverse units at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. The Medeiros Lab Hui collaborates extensively with several C- MĀIKI faculty members, leveraging their expertise in traditional and clinical microbiology, microbial genetics, mycology, virology, network analysis, chemical ecology and metabolomics, machine learning, and bioinformatics.
IMPACT TO HAWAII
The Medeiros Lab Hui works extensively with federal, state, and community stakeholder partners to advance landscape-scale mosquito suppression in Hawai‘i using microbial technologies. We are active participants in the “Birds, Not Mosquitoes” coalition that seeks to implement Wolbachia-mediated incompatible insect technique to suppress Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes that vector avian malaria parasites that threaten native Hawaiian forest birds. Moreover, we have worked with the Hawai‘i Department of Health toward similar objectives for Aedes mosquito populations that create the potential for dengue virus, chikungunya virus, and Zika virus epidemics in the State. Specifically, our research aims to augment these efforts through the development of optimized mosquito-associated microbiomes that support more efficient and cost-effective implementation of safe landscape-scale mosquito suppression in Hawai‘i.