Dr. Carolina Barillas-Mury was born in Guatemala City and obtained her B.S. degree from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and her M.D. from Universidad Francisco Marroquin. She obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Arizona in 1991 and did her postdoctoral training in Dr. Fotis Kafatos's laboratory at Harvard University and at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany. She obtained a faculty position at Colorado State University in 1998 and joined NIH in 1993 as head of the Mosquito Immunity and Vector Competence Section.
Barillas-Mury is interested in understanding the interactions between the mosquito immune system and Plasmodium parasites that are critical for malaria transmission, with the ultimate goal of disrupting the parasite's life cycle and preventing human disease. She received the 2010 Bailey K. Ashford Medal, awarded by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, for distinguished work in tropical medicine; she also was honored with the 2013 Sanofi/Pasteur Award in Tropical and Neglected Diseases. She was elected as member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014; became Distinguished NIH Investigator in 2016; received a Doctor Honoris Causa from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala in 2016; and was Alumni of the Year of the University of Arizona in 2017, Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2017, and Fellow of the Entomological Society of America in 2020.
(updated September 2020)