Laurence Zwiebel

This past academic year, seven graduate students and one undergraduate student participated in the 2025 Merck Compound Challenge. Created in 2018, the competition gives teams from around the world 48 hours to create a proposed route of chemical steps from a commercial chemical they believe will make the final compound. Read More

Stephen Ferguson, first-author of a new paper with his postdoctoral advisor, Laurence Zwiebel, along with two undergraduates associated with the lab, Isaac Bakis and Nicholas Edwards, confirmed the existence of a specialized soldier caste within an ant species. Read More

In a new study, scientists at Vanderbilt report definitive evidence of a mechanism within ants that is responsible for unlocking aggression. The research—the first to pinpoint this mechanism and its precise role in ant biology—reports a social characteristic which could help account for their evolutionary success. Read More

A team of biologists report a major advance in deciphering the molecular genetics underlying the ant's high-definition sense of smell, an ability that underpins their highly complex society. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt biologists has found that the malaria mosquito has a second complete set of odor receptors that are specially tuned to human scents. Read More

In the latest VUCast: Learn about a mosquito-fighter stronger than any on the market; see the creative project for sick kids that sent a VU student to the White House; and do you recognize the faces in our #Vandygram mashup? Watch now! Read More

Larry Zwiebel’s research, which is supported by an $11 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and more than $5 million in grant funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focuses on preventing mosquitoes from feeding on humans. Read More

See how a discovery about mosquito sperm could fight deadly disease; learn where to click for the coolest original music created by Vanderbilt students; and tour the newest evolution of College Halls. All this and more in the latest VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast. Watch now. Read More

Vanderbilt biologists have discovered that mosquito sperm have a “sense of smell” and that some of same chemicals that the mosquito can smell cause the sperm to swim harder. Read More

It is peak mosquito season, and while some lucky outdoor venturers seem unperturbed by the tiny insects, others appear to be relentlessly assaulted. Laurence Zwiebel, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Biological Sciences, explains the most common culprits. Read More

After more than a decade spent successfully decoding the malaria mosquito’s sense of smell, the Zwiebel Lab has added ant olfaction to its research repertoire and has just received a major grant to pursue this new avenue for the next four years. Read More

Ants have four to five times more odor receptors than most other insects, a team of researchers have discovered. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a new insect repellent compound that may be thousands of times stronger than DEET, the active ingredient currently in common mosquito repellents. This new compound is the first of its kind in the world.  … Read More

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/nosingoutmosquitoes.jsp Read More

Last week when the Nashville Scene’s annual Innovations Issue hit the newsstands, three of its ten “forward-thinking ideas that are pushing Nashville – and the world – into the future” came from Vanderbilt. The three campus projects that impressed the Scene editors were: Digging for Drugs:… Read More

Graduate students Chao Liu and R. Jason Pitts Origin of DEET’s repellent effect confirmed It now appears that the malaria mosquito needs more than one family of odor sensors to sniff out its human prey. That is the implication of new research into the mosquito’s sense of smell published… Read More