Scientists create malaria-proof mosquito

It could be introduced into wild mosquito populations.

June 12, 2012 at 11:41PM
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Researchers at University of California, Irvine say they have created a mosquito incapable of transmitting malaria, an advance with the potential to change the lives of hundreds of millions in Africa and other malaria-plagued regions of the world.

The genetically altered insect, a modified version of a mosquito species known to spread malaria in India and the Middle East, could be introduced into wild mosquito populations, the scientists said.

It would then reproduce, expanding its malaria-resistant genes throughout the population. The same laboratory method used to alter this mosquito species, the scientists said, could be used on other mosquito species, as well.

Nearly a million people die of malaria every year, mostly children and pregnant women in Africa; worldwide, 300 million to 500 people come down with malaria.

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Colleen Stoxen

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Colleen Stoxen oversees hiring, intern programs, newsroom finances, news production and union relations. She has been with the Minnesota Star Tribune since 1987, after working as a copy editor and reporter at newspapers in California, Indiana and North Dakota.

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