Meet The Team
Joshua Benoit, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Tropical Genetics Associate Professor Department of Biological Sciences University of Cincinnati SECVBD Partner
Dr. Joshua Benoit is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at University of Cincinnati and a partner of the CDC Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases (SECVBD). Even as a child Dr. Benoit was passionate about studying whatever insects or arthropods he could find. He began studying ticks during undergrad and received his BS in Biochemistry from Wittenberg University in Ohio. He later went on to complete a PhD in Entomology at Ohio State University with Dr. David L. Denlinger. His dissertation focused on stress tolerance of insects and ticks, which even included research in Antarctica on ticks. After his PhD he completed a postdoc at Yale University with Dr. Serap Askoy studying tsetse fly reproduction and genomics.
Dr. Joshua Benoit is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at University of Cincinnati and a partner of the CDC Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases (SECVBD). Even as a child Dr. Benoit was passionate about studying whatever insects or arthropods he could find. He began studying ticks during undergrad and received his BS in Biochemistry from Wittenberg University in Ohio. He later went on to complete a PhD in Entomology at Ohio State University with Dr. David L. Denlinger. His dissertation focused on stress tolerance of insects and ticks, which even included research in Antarctica on ticks. After his PhD he completed a postdoc at Yale University with Dr. Serap Askoy studying tsetse fly reproduction and genomics.
Currently, Dr. Benoit’s lab focuses on a variety of study organisms including ticks, mosquitoes, and kissing bugs, focusing on the molecular physiology of these species. By studying how these organisms react to stress from a variety of sources (thermal, disruption of circadian rhythm, pesticide exposure) his lab is understanding the underlying transcriptomics, metabolomics, and how a combination of stressors affect the organism function as a whole. The diversity of study organisms allows his lab to broaden ideas and enrich lab meetings through discussion. University of Cincinnati is also located in an area known as the “upland south” and the city is commonly referred to as the “gateway to the south”, reflecting a northern state with a more southern climate. This climate allows connections to be made from his research to areas throughout the southeast.
Dr. Benoit, along with Dr. Matthew DeGennaro (Florida International University and SECVBD PI), and Dr. Jason Rasgon (Pennsylvania State University), recently received NIH funding to study mosquito physiology. Specifically, this project aims to understand how drought affects mosquito disease transmission, the underlying genetics, and an overall holistic view of how the molecular biology is affected by drought conditions.
Dr. Benoit is excited to continue collaborating with SECVBD as we learn more about vector borne disease systems. He also is currently recruiting postdocs for the Spring/Fall of 2021 to study aspects underlying vector physiology, so please contact him if you are interested!
To learn more about Dr. Benoit and his research visit:
