GM Mosquitoes to Combat Malaria

Scientists at the Imperial College and the University of Washington are on their way towards producing genetically modified mosquitoes against malaria. They inserted a gene that disrupts the development of malaria's parasite into the DNA of mosquito which codes for an enzyme that cuts the DNA into two. The cell's repair mechanism then uses the gene as template when repairing the cut and copying the endonuclease gene, resulting to sperms carrying the gene. Thus, all offsprings carry the gene and the process keeps on repeating, leading to spread of the gene across the globe.

Professor Andrea Crisanti, from the department of life sciences at Imperial College London, said: "This is an exciting technological development, one which I hope will pave the way for solutions to many global health problems."

For more details, read http://www.gs.washington.edu/news/windbichler_Nature2011.pdf.