Lyna Ngor, who earned her PhD from University of California, Riverside in 2025, is developing an innovative biological approach to mosquito control using the bacterium Wolbachia. Unlike traditional methods that require repeatedly releasing infected mosquitoes, her research explores how Wolbachia could spread naturally through the environment. She found that bees, which can carry the bacterium, may deposit it on flowers they visit, allowing mosquitoes to pick it up when they feed from the same plants. This could create a self-sustaining system that reduces mosquitoes’ ability to transmit disease without constant human intervention. Ngor is also building a library of Wolbachia strains from insects like bees and ants to identify which ones can survive on plants and transfer effectively, with the goal of creating a long-lasting, environmentally friendly mosquito control strategy.