Gm Mosquitoes Could Beat Malaria

21 March 2007 (TODAY)

LONDON - Mosquitoes genetically engineered to resist a malaria-causing
parasite may offer a new weapon in the fight against one of the developing
world's biggest killers. Such mosquitoes, which have an impaired ability
to transmit the Plasmodium parasite, were hardier and capable of producing
more offspring than insects found in the wild, according to researchers at
Johns Hopkins University.

The findings, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, are important because they show that, when feeding on
blood infected with the malaria parasite, the genetically modified (GM)
mosquito has a survival advantage over its non-modified counterpart.

This is in contrast to previous studies suggesting that GM mosquitoes are
inherently weaker than non- modified ones.

The next challenge is to devise a means by which the parasite-resistant
genes can be introduced to mosquito populations in the field. - Bloomberg