Scientists create malaria-blocking mosquito
9 years, 3 months ago

Scientists create malaria-blocking mosquito

CNN  

Story highlights So far this year, more than 400,000 people have died from malaria 91% of deaths were in Sub-Saharan Africa CNN — Scientists in the U.S. say they’ve created a new strain of mosquito that could eventually help eradicate malaria. Researchers at the University of California used a gene editing technique to insert DNA into the germ line of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito – a leading vector of the disease. “This opens up the real promise that this technique can be adapted for eliminating malaria,” said Anthony James, Distinguished Professor of molecular biology & biochemistry and microbiology and molecular genetics at UC’s Irvine campus. Gene manipulation To change the genetic makeup of the mosquitoes, scientists used the CRISPR gene-editing tool, which allows access to a cell’s nucleus to remove DNA, replace mutated genes, or insert new ones.

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History of this topic

A Bill Gates-tied mosquito project is not responsible for recent US malaria cases
55 years, 2 months ago

A Bill Gates-tied mosquito project is not responsible for recent US malaria cases

Associated Press  

CLAIM: Rare malaria cases reported in Florida and Texas recently were caused by a disease-control initiative backed by Bill Gates that involved releasing genetically modified mosquitoes in the U.S. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. One tweet reads: “Malaria has been detected in Florida and Texas, CONVENIENTLY two states where Bill Gates was experimenting with GMO mosquitoes.” “JOIN THE DOTS - Bill Gates …

Explained: How scientists engineered mosquitoes that cannot spread malaria – Firstpost
2 years, 5 months ago

Explained: How scientists engineered mosquitoes that cannot spread malaria – Firstpost

Firstpost  

The genetically modified mosquitos have the ability to slow the growth of malaria-causing parasites in their gut, an innovation that can help prevent transmission of the disease to humans The world of science is reaching new heights. Genetically modified mosquitoes have the ability to slow the growth of malaria-causing parasites in their gut, an innovation that can help prevent transmission …

Scientists engineer mosquitoes that can't spread malaria
2 years, 5 months ago

Scientists engineer mosquitoes that can't spread malaria

The Hindu  

Scientists have genetically modified mosquitoes with the ability to slow the growth of malaria-causing parasites in their gut, an advance that can help prevent transmission of the disease to humans. "Delaying the parasite's growth in the mosquito has opened many more opportunities to block malaria transmission from mosquitoes to humans," said study co-first author, Astrid Hoermann. "Gene drive is one …

Radboud University researchers may have a vaccine that fights the spread of malaria
2 years, 7 months ago

Radboud University researchers may have a vaccine that fights the spread of malaria

NL Times  

Researchers at the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen think they have developed a vaccine that combats the spread of malaria. If an Anopheles mosquito bites a person who has taken the vaccine, and draws a blood meal from them, the malaria parasites in that mosquito are rendered harmless, according to clinical research. A single injection would be enough to …

Continuous innovation needed to eliminate malaria
2 years, 8 months ago

Continuous innovation needed to eliminate malaria

China Daily  

Scientist Tu Youyou, a 2015 Nobel Prize laureate, does research in her lab in Beijing. In 2020 alone, 627,000 people died from malaria globally, according to the World Health Organization's latest World Malaria Report, and another 241 million people were infected, most of whom are in low-income countries. The Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation, with a core mission focusing on eliminating …

Can we end malaria within our lifetime?
2 years, 9 months ago

Can we end malaria within our lifetime?

Al Jazeera  

On Friday, June 3 at 19:30 GMT: Each minute a child dies from malaria, a disease that disproportionately affects babies and children on the African continent. And with so much recent focus on COVID-19, attention on the parasitic disease has waned, leading to a surge in malaria cases and deaths in some countries. On this episode of The Stream, we …

WHO: No ‘doomsday,’ but malaria fight disrupted by pandemic
3 years, 3 months ago

WHO: No ‘doomsday,’ but malaria fight disrupted by pandemic

Associated Press  

GENEVA — The World Health Organization said Monday that the global response to the longtime threat of malaria has taken a hit as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted health services in many countries, leading to tens of thousands more deaths worldwide last year — as questions remain on the possible fallout this year. The figures for last year could have been …

Killing the chills: The Hindu Editorial on the malaria vaccine
3 years, 5 months ago

Killing the chills: The Hindu Editorial on the malaria vaccine

The Hindu  

The triumphs of science are best appreciated when they make human lives easier or safer, or simply, offer hope. The first ever World Health Organization -approved anti-malaria vaccine must count among those triumphs. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom rightly termed it as a historic moment, achieving a breakthrough not only for malaria control but also child health and science itself. …

UN endorses world’s 1st malaria vaccine as ‘historic moment’
3 years, 5 months ago

UN endorses world’s 1st malaria vaccine as ‘historic moment’

Associated Press  

LONDON — The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it will spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease. “So obviously if they’ve been vaccinated, they will still be protected.” In recent years, little significant progress has been …

Scientists in California Aim To Edit Genes of Mosquitoes, Making Them ‘Blind’ To Humans
3 years, 6 months ago

Scientists in California Aim To Edit Genes of Mosquitoes, Making Them ‘Blind’ To Humans

News 18  

Having to co-exist with mosquitoes is one of the biggest banes of being human. According to the report published in the medical journal Current Biology, editing the genes of mosquitoes will render them unable to spot humans, thus eliminating the possibility of any human getting affected by a mosquito bite. A team of scientists based in California is doing this …

Scientists map detailed genome of malaria mosquito vector
4 years, 1 month ago

Scientists map detailed genome of malaria mosquito vector

Hindustan Times  

Scientists have unveiled the detailed genome of the malaria mosquito vector, revealing thousands of new genes vital for the development of genetic control strategies of disease transmission. In order to engineer advanced forms of defence against malaria transmission, including targeted CRISPR and gene drive-based strategies, scientists require intricate knowledge of the genomes of vector mosquitoes. Mahul Chakraborty, a project scientist …

Malaria killed 405,000 in 2018 as medical funding stalled: WHO
5 years, 3 months ago

Malaria killed 405,000 in 2018 as medical funding stalled: WHO

Al Jazeera  

Pregnant women, children in Africa continue to bear brunt of epidemic that affected 228 million worldwide last year. Malaria still infects millions of people every year and kills more than 400,000 – mostly children in Africa – because the fight against the mosquito-borne disease has stalled, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. An estimated 11 million pregnant women in …

Genetically modifying mosquitoes to control the spread of disease carries unknown risks
5 years, 5 months ago

Genetically modifying mosquitoes to control the spread of disease carries unknown risks

Salon  

Every year, around one million people die of mosquito-borne diseases according to the World Health Organization. Genetically modified mosquitoes The transfer of new genes from GM organisms to wild or domesticated non-GM populations is a key criticism of GM crops like soybean and corn. Changes to the gene pool According to research published by Oxitec researchers in 2015, field trials …

Anti-malarial drug: New discovery offers new hope towards prevention from the deadly disease
5 years, 6 months ago

Anti-malarial drug: New discovery offers new hope towards prevention from the deadly disease

India TV News  

A new drug has been discovered by a team of scientists in the US which unleashes a new hope to prevent the spreading of malaria. The drug aims to kill the parasite at all stages of its life cycle along with treating the patient suffering from the deadly disease. The drug can kill the Plasmodium mosquito, responsible for causing the …

Rising Malaria Cases Requires Quick Action Globally: UN
5 years, 6 months ago

Rising Malaria Cases Requires Quick Action Globally: UN

The Quint  

The WHO report predicts that even given its "most optimistic scenarios and projections. It said a "massive concerted and coordinated action" was needed to eradicate the disease transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Sub-Saharan Africa bears by far the greatest malaria burden with WHO data showing the region accounted for 90 per cent of related deaths in …

Killers Vs Killer: How GM Fungi Can Fight Against Malaria
5 years, 9 months ago

Killers Vs Killer: How GM Fungi Can Fight Against Malaria

The Quint  

Sterile and genetically modified insects. Now scientists are adding a genetically engineered toxic fungus to the arsenal of weapons to wipe out mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite. Although insecticides and insecticide-laced bed nets, by far the two most commonly employed strategies, have effectively lowered the numbers of infections and deaths,, the global malaria burden has failed to decline in …

Is genetic modification the future of fighting disease?
5 years, 9 months ago

Is genetic modification the future of fighting disease?

The Independent  

The ability to precisely edit DNA and swap genes in or out with unprecedented precision has the power to transform virtually every field. US researchers on Thursday showed a gene edited fungus which only targets mosquitoes and was able to essentially wipe out a population in trials in a controlled village setting in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Crucially it worked …

Science moves closer to killing malaria with mutant mosquitos
6 years, 1 month ago

Science moves closer to killing malaria with mutant mosquitos

Wired  

Getty Images For the last 15 years, Austin Burt and Andrea Crisanti have worked tirelessly to genetically engineer the perfect mosquitoes. The two scientists are at the most radical end of a spectrum of researchers currently working to eradicate malaria, a disease that killed 435,000 people, most of them children, in 2017. Not content with blocking the parasite that causes …

Mosquito swarm driven to extinction with gene editing in an experimental first
6 years, 5 months ago

Mosquito swarm driven to extinction with gene editing in an experimental first

Firstpost  

It could be five to ten years before mosquitoes are tested with gene drive in the wild: researchers. So-called gene drive technology works by forcing evolution’s hand, ensuring that an engineered trait is passed down to a higher proportion of offspring – across many generations – than would have occurred naturally. “This breakthrough shows that gene drive can work, providing …

Gene editing could eliminate mosquitoes, but is it a good idea?
6 years, 5 months ago

Gene editing could eliminate mosquitoes, but is it a good idea?

CNN  

Story highlights Researchers used a gene editing tool, CRISPR, to wipe out a population of malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the lab Questions remain about how releasing this technology into the wild would impact the environment CNN — Researchers have rendered a population of mosquitoes in a lab sterile using the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 by homing in on a specific target in …

Here's the Plan to End Malaria With Crispr-Edited Mosquitoes
6 years, 5 months ago

Here's the Plan to End Malaria With Crispr-Edited Mosquitoes

Wired  

In 2003, scientists at London’s Imperial College hatched a somewhat out-there idea. This concept of a “gene drive” was decades-old, but no one had successfully concocted one in a lab, let alone applied it to a global public health scourge. “There’s just a huge evolutionary pressure on the organism to resist.” But by exploiting a critical gene without any flexibility …

Gene editing could bring an end to all inherited disease and cancer, expert says
8 years, 1 month ago

Gene editing could bring an end to all inherited disease and cancer, expert says

The Independent  

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Gene editing techniques that have been developed in recent years could be put to work to effectively …

Can genetically modified mosquitoes eradicate malaria?
8 years, 3 months ago

Can genetically modified mosquitoes eradicate malaria?

Al Jazeera  

We investigate whether GM mosquitoes created in labs can be the new hope in the fight against malaria, Zika and dengue. For instance, residents of Key West, Florida are split over whether they agree that genetically modified mosquitoes have a place in fighting the spread of vector-borne diseases. So can genetically modified mosquitoes help eradicate dengue or malaria? On this …

The doctor who plans to end malaria
8 years, 9 months ago

The doctor who plans to end malaria

CNN  

CNN — From his extensive laboratory on the leafy campuses of the University of Oxford, Professor Adrian Hill is conjuring up a formula to protect us from disease. Source University of Oxford Hill and his team are developing vaccines against four different stages of the parasite's life cycle to one day combine them into one vaccine bringing more potent protection. …

Mosquitos being genetically modified to become infertile, will drastically reduce transmission of Malaria
9 years, 3 months ago

Mosquitos being genetically modified to become infertile, will drastically reduce transmission of Malaria

Firstpost  

London: Scientists have genetically modified malaria-causing mosquitoes to become infertile and pass on the trait rapidly, an advance that may substantially reduce the transmission of the deadly disease. The mosquito species Anopheles gambiae is a major carrier of dangerous malaria parasites in sub-Saharan Africa, where 90 per cent of annual malaria deaths occur. Now, a team of researchers led by …

The 'Gene Drive' That Builds a Malaria-Proof Mosquito
9 years, 3 months ago

The 'Gene Drive' That Builds a Malaria-Proof Mosquito

Wired  

On Monday, scientists announced they could cheat the laws of evolution: They had devised a way to force a gene that kills malaria parasites to spread through a whole population of mosquitoes that normally carry the parasite---at least in a lab. Intrigued by natural gene drives, the geneticist Austin Burt proposed in 2003 making a synthetic one to take a …

Genetically modified mosquito could eradicate malaria
9 years, 3 months ago

Genetically modified mosquito could eradicate malaria

The Independent  

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. …

Scientists aim to fight malaria with genetically engineered mosquitoes
9 years, 3 months ago

Scientists aim to fight malaria with genetically engineered mosquitoes

LA Times  

Watch out, malaria — scientists are coming for you with genetically engineered mosquitoes. “In principal, if you have a population of 100 million mosquitoes and you released 1 million of these genetically modified mosquitoes into the same area, the new gene would be spread throughout the entire population in less than a season,” said Ethan Bier, a biologist at UC …

Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up.
9 years, 7 months ago

Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up.

Wired  

Any gene typically has just a 50–50 chance of getting passed on. Burt suggested using this “gene drive” to alter mosquitoes that spread malaria, which kills around a million people every year. “I am responsible for opening a can of worms when it comes to gene drives,” Esvelt says, “and that is why I try to ensure that scientists are …

Could malaria be wiped out by GM mosquitoes? Scientists find a way to kill off disease-carrying female of the species
10 years, 9 months ago

Could malaria be wiped out by GM mosquitoes? Scientists find a way to kill off disease-carrying female of the species

Daily Mail  

Could malaria be wiped out by GM mosquitoes? Scientists find a way to kill off disease-carrying female of the species 95% of eggs laid by the GM mosquitoes hatch into male offspring If they were released into the wild, they could wipe out disease-carrying insects by denying them the opportunity to breed through lack of females It could even lead …

Preventing Malaria by Protecting Mosquitoes
11 years, 4 months ago

Preventing Malaria by Protecting Mosquitoes

Wired  

Dr. Tony Brain/Getty Images Mosquitoes suck. WOLBACHIA After promising results using mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacterium to reduce Dengue fever, researchers at Michigan State University tried using it to squash Plasmodium too. Still to be addressed: The mosquitoes in this study are the kind that live in India, but the biggest malaria problem is in Africa. PANTOEA AGGLOMERANS You can …

Know The Enemy: Scientists Use Genetics To Get Ahead Of Malaria
12 years, 9 months ago

Know The Enemy: Scientists Use Genetics To Get Ahead Of Malaria

NPR  

Know The Enemy: Scientists Use Genetics To Get Ahead Of Malaria toggle caption John C. Tan/AP Like the proverbial mosquito that buzzes in your ear but won't die, a lasting solution to malaria has been maddeningly elusive to health experts. In the latest case of resistance, researchers announced in April they'd found a new form of malaria resistant to the …

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