Johan Manuel Calderón

Johan Manuel Calderón Rodríguez

E-mail: jm.calderon@uniandes.edu.co

Office: A208

Ext. 3395

I am a biologist from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. During my bachelor studies, I worked with the genetics of Afro Colombian populations, and during my master, I studied the chemical ecology of plant-herbivore interaction in Physalis peruviana plants (Uchuva). Currently, I am doing my doctoral project about disease ecology of Chagas disease. My specific interest is about palms as sites for the establishment of Rhodnius prolixus populations (the main vector of Chagas disease in Colombia) and for the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi. For this research, I am determining the main palm characteristics related to vector presence and abundance, and the effect of vertebrate community associated with palms on the T. cruzi infection of vectors.