To Curb Malaria, Researchers Create Gene That Rapidly Spreads Through Mosquito Populations
Fighting Mosquitoes With Mosquitoes USDA Scientists have taken a big step toward curbing the impact of malaria across the globe, but the breakthrough didn't occur in a pharmaceutical lab. A collaboration between researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Washington has produced a gene that the team was able to effectively spread from just a few mosquitoes to most of a population in just a dozen generations. Armed with malaria inhibiting characteristics, such a gene could combat malaria at the source. Genetically modified mosquitoes are a touchy subject in some corners of the world where malaria is most rampant, but they could be the most effective way to slow the spread of the malaria parasite in the wild. But before GM mosquitoes can be effective, researchers have to find a gene that will survive through generations. If the gene offers no evolutionary advantage, it will likely die out. The researchers...