Dr Villinger is a Research Scientist and Head of icipe’s Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics Unit (MBBU). With a background in vertebrate immunity and the genetic underpinnings of kin recognition and pathogen–vector–host interactions, he has helped to establish icipe’s Martin Lüscher Emerging Infectious Diseases (ML-EID) Laboratory, where he led the development of multiplex PCR with high-resolution melting (HRM) approaches for the rapid identification of diverse arthropod vectored viruses (arboviruses), Plasmodium (malaria) parasites, tick-borne pathogens, arthropod vector species and their blood-meal hosts. His broad research interests include transmission dynamics of vectored pathogens considering both vector, pathogen and host diversities in an effort to identify new strategies to block the transmission of vector-borne diseases.

He has supervised five PhD students, ten MSc students and three postdoctoral fellows.