Haobo Jiang is a biochemist and molecular biologist who has been investigating antimicrobial responses of insects for more than twenty-five years.  He obtained B.S. degree in Biochemistry at East China University of Science and Technology in 1985 and Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry at Kansas State University in 1994.  Dr. Jiang joined OSU Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology as Assistant Professor in 2000.  He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006, Full Professor in 2009, and Regents Professor in 2016.  The studies performed by his group and collaborators have revealed a serine protease network in a biochemical model species (Manduca sexta), analogous to the human blood coagulation system.  In insects, this enzyme system coordinates defense mechanisms against pathogens and parasites.  The knowledge acquired from the lepidopteran insect forms a base for exploring similar systems in arthropod vectors of human diseases, such as mosquitoes.  Dr. Jiang’s team initially worked on the reaction of prophenoloxidase activation in M. sexta, which is responsible for the melanotic encapsulation of malaria parasites in mosquitoes.  Over the years, his program has expanded into the following fields: 1) biochemical characterization of serine protease cascades that coordinate melanization and other defense responses, 2) comparative genomic studies of immunity-related genes in important insect species, 3) quantitative analyses of transcriptomic and proteomic changes associated with innate immune responses, and 4) elucidation of three-dimensional structures of important defense proteins by X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy.