Mariana Federica Wolfner is the Goldwin Smith Professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University.
[1] She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2019 in recognition of her distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
[4] During her undergraduate degree she worked in Gerald Fink's laboratory, studying the control of amino acids in yeast, and graduated in 1974.
[9] Wolfner found that during mating the seminal fluid proteins that were created in male accessory glands were transferred to females, and caused postmating changes.
[10][11] She spent two years at the University of California, San Diego working on mutant phenotypes in seminal fluid proteins.
[14][15][16] Wolfner works with Laura Harrington on the identification of seminal fluid proteins in mosquitoes that are responsible for the transmission of the Zika and dengue viruses.