Felipe Dutra Rêgo is a biologist and medical entomologist, PhD, with more than 15 years of experience in vector-borne diseases, parasite-vector interactions, and public health surveillance in endemic settings. Trained in Brazil, he developed a strong background in parasitology, sand fly taxonomy, vector ecology, and molecular detection of pathogens in arthropods and wildlife reservoirs.
His research focuses on how ecological interactions among vectors, pathogens, hosts, and the environment shape the transmission of neglected tropical diseases. He has worked at the interface between classical medical entomology and public health, with particular emphasis on sand flies, Leishmania transmission, trypanosomatid diversity, vector surveillance, and disease emergence in urban, peri-urban, and forest-fragment landscapes.
At the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, he is developing the MSCA-funded project MOSAIC: Monitoring Sugar-feeding Activity in Insects for Bioactive Compound Identification. This project investigates plant-derived sugar feeding as an underexplored ecological driver of vector biology and pathogen transmission. By combining field entomology, plant-vector interaction studies, molecular barcoding, chemical profiling, predictive modelling, and experimental validation, his work aims to identify naturally occurring plant compounds with potential anti-pathogenic activity against mosquito- and sand fly-borne pathogens.
His broader research vision is to integrate medical entomology, parasitology, chemical ecology, artificial intelligence, and public health to develop sustainable approaches for vector surveillance and control. A central goal of his work is to connect ecological evidence with practical tools for disease prevention, especially in low- and middle-income countries affected by dengue, leishmaniasis, and other vector-borne diseases.
Currently, Felipe Dutra Rêgo is involved in the following projects and activities:
MOSAIC: Monitoring Sugar-feeding Activity in Insects for Bioactive Compound Identification, an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship project investigating sugar-feeding ecology and bioactive nectar compounds in mosquitoes and sand flies in Nepal;
Systematic reviews on sand fly-Leishmania associations in Brazil and on the role of plant-derived sugar meals in mosquito and sand fly fitness, microbiota, and pathogen infection;
Research on the diversity of trypanosomatids in small mammals and arthropods at wildlife-urban interfaces in Brazil, with implications for public health surveillance;
Capacity building and knowledge transfer in medical entomology, including previous collaborations with Brazilian public health institutions for training teams involved in leishmaniasis vector surveillance and control.