Luca Facchinelli holds a Master’s degree in Biology from Roma Tre University and a PhD in Public Health from the University of Rome La Sapienza. His research career began during his doctoral studies, which focused on the ecology of aedes albopictus in Italy.

From 2007 to 2011, Luca worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Field Site Manager at the University of California, Davis, where he supported the transition of transgenic aedes aegypti lines from laboratory to field evaluation in southern Mexico. Luca led the first semi-field evaluation of a female-flightless strain and coordinated studies on population dynamics, male dispersal, and larval ecology.

Between 2012 and 2013, he continued his research on aedes albopictus at the University of Rome La Sapienza under the EDENext consortium. From 2013 to 2017, Luca joined the University of Perugia, contributing to the Target Malaria project. He worked on the characterisation of transgenic anopheles gambiae lines and developed a novel insectary setup to assess mating behaviour in semi-field conditions. He also trained African entomologists in containment facility operations.

In 2017, Luca moved to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), where he now manages projects on mosquito behaviour and vector control product evaluation. He uses semi-field systems and video tracking to test insecticides and product efficacy. Since 2020, Luca has also served as an assessor for the World Health Organisation PQT-VCP, evaluating the efficacy of vector control products submitted for prequalification.

Luca’s work focuses on mosquito behaviour and how it can be exploited to improve vector control strategies. He is particularly interested in the indoor resting habits of aedes and African anopheles species, which play a key role in disease transmission. In collaboration with colleagues at LSTM and partners in Latin America and Africa, Luca is investigating how these mosquitoes interact with indoor environments through laboratory, semi-field, and field studies, using video tracking systems to analyse their movement and resting patterns.

These behavioural insights support the development of targeted approaches for the indoor application of residual insecticides that require significantly less active ingredient, by treating only the surfaces mosquitoes are most likely to rest on. This has the potential to make indoor residual spraying more affordable, scalable, and suitable for household-led application.

As part of the World Health Organisation Prequalification Team for Vector Control Products, Luca contributes to the assessment of the vector control efficacy components of dossiers submitted for prequalification.

His current work also includes a project in Burkina Faso investigating the biology of the two subspecies of aedes aegypti and their role in the transmission of dengue and other arboviruses.