Mosquito
*Gates Foundation supports project with $9.1m in desperate bid to eradicate malaria
Bill Gates has donated $4.1 million to a lab creating mosquitoes that self-destruct by producing offspring that dies before reaching adulthood.
Scientists at British biotech firm Oxitec are infecting female mosquitoes (the only ones that bite) with a hereditary gene that means their offspring cannot survive outside a lab.
They have seen success with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread Zika, reducing their populations in some regions by up to 90 percent.
But now, they plan to identify a new gene to infect malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquitoes, with a new crop slated to start trials in 2020.
Gates’ donation is all part of his ambitious bid to eliminate malaria from the world ‘within a…
Read More…..Guardian Newspapers
