Scientists create malaria-resistant mosquitoes

A mosquito.
(Image credit: Twitter.com/GenomicsRR)

More than three billion people are at risk of contracting malaria, and researchers from the University of California, Irvine, say that a genetically modified mosquito bred inside their lab likely wouldn't be able to spread the disease.

In the journal PNAS, the scientists wrote that they put a "resistance" gene into the DNA of Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, and when those mosquitoes mated, nearly 100 percent of the offspring through three generations inherited the same resistance, the BBC reports. If the technique works in the field, mosquitoes who bite people most likely would not be able to pass along the parasite that causes malaria.

Around the world, people use repellents, insecticides, and bed nets to keep mosquitoes at bay, but malaria still kills 580,000 people a year. The researchers say they are hopeful that the method would work in other mosquito species, and that these malaria-resistant insects could replace mosquitoes that spread the disease.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.