Researchers have developed a malaria-resistant mosquito, a step that might one day help block the spread of an illness that has claimed millions of lives around the world.
When they fed on malaria-infected mice, the resistant mosquitoes had a higher survival rate than non-resistant ones, meaning they could eventually replace the ones that can carry the disease, according to a report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jason Rasgon of the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University cautioned that the research so far is only a proof of principle and any field tests remain far away.
Nonetheless, it's a goal eagerly sought by scientists in hope of developing a practical way of blocking the spread of malaria.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 700,000 to 2.7 million people die of malaria each year, 75% of them African children.
Working with the mouse form of malaria — not the human type — Rasgon's team was able to genetically engineer mosquitoes that were resistant to malaria.
Malaria infection does exact a toll on mosquitoes and in laboratory work they found that the resistant insects were able to outcompete non-resistant mosquitoes.
Starting with the same number of resistant and non-resistant mosquitoes, they found that after nine generations the resistant type made up 70% of the population — raising the possibility of replacing regular mosquitoes with resistant ones that don't spread disease.
The sad thing is, if those nuts who protest against genetically altered food are consistent they will try to oppose this effort as well. They will probably call them "Frankenmosquitoes" or something.
Why doesn't the MSM treat those folks like the flat-worlders they really are?
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