**1.1 Vector-borne diseases**

Vector-borne diseases remain among the deadliest and most prevalent infectious diseases worldwide. Mosquito*-*transmitted arboviral diseases inflict an enormous burden in tropical areas of the world. A previous study estimated that almost 400 million people are infected by the dengue virus (DENV) every year [1]. While tremendous progress on vector control has been made over the twentieth and twentyfirst centuries, we are now facing a critical moment. Record-breaking numbers of dengue cases were detected in the Americas in 2019 [2]. This is aggravated by the fact that multiple serotypes circulate in these regions, maximizing the risk of hemorrhagic fever and other severe complications. Other arboviruses are also of concern. For example, the Zika virus (ZIKV), transmitted by *Aedes aegypti*, rapidly spread in the Americas in 2014–2015, where it was linked with a surge of newborn malformations,

including microcephaly [3, 4], inflicting a lifelong impact on children, their parents, and the health public system. Other viruses, like Mayaro (MAYV), chikungunya (CHKV), and yellow fever (YFV), continue to circulate and periodically reemerge. In addition to the arboviruses, vector-borne parasitic diseases, such as Chagas disease, are also medically important. The triatomine bug *Rhodnius prolixus* is a primary vector of *Trypanosoma cruzi*, the causative agent of Chagas disease, a neglected disease endemic to Central and South America. Chagas disease remains the main cause of death related to neglected infectious diseases in the Americas. Currently, Chagas affects approximately 8 million people and migration among endemic and non-endemic regions has expanded its occurrence to approximately 350,000 infected carriers around the globe [5].

Overall, these diseases not only result in a high number of deaths and hospitalizations but also generate a huge economic impact due to the disability of people during their learning and working ages [6, 7]. While most restricted to tropical areas, where vectors meet the perfect conditions for mating and reproduction, models of climate change predict an expansion of the global areas suitable for vector reproduction. Under these models, areas of Europe and America have already seen an increase in the suitability of vector populations and this trend is going to accelerate in the following decades [8, 9]. This is of special concern as these pathogens meet an immunologically naive local population lacking any previous exposure to such diseases.
