A New Weapon to help fight malaria, is Modified mosquito

The world's fight against malaria, which infects 300 million people and kills 2.5 million annually, may be boosted by a controversial new weapon — a genetically-modified mosquito that can't spread malaria.

Scientists from the Malaria Research Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, US, have successfully developed the world's first genetically engineered, malaria-resistant mosquito that is more dominant than its naturally-born wild counterparts.

Researchers led by Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena created the GM mosquitoes by injecting them with a gene that made it impossible for them to be infected by the Plasmodium parasite that causes malaria.

The next step will be to develop GM mosquitoes which are resistant to the Plasmodium strain that infects humans (the present trials involved strains that spread malaria in mice). This should take at least five years. If all goes well, these GM mosquitoes will be ready for release in the wild — a step seen as extremely controversial. Experts said tens of thousands of such mosquitoes would have to be released for effectively controlling malaria.

source:www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com