Ecological and environmental damage must be at the center of considerations as we develop genetically engineered solutions to malaria. A problem that can be significantly reduced by looking at breeding places of the mosquito without transmogrifying the delicate ecosystem equilibrium. Haruna. I am fundamentally against genetically engineering other animals to save human life. It has more devastating consequences to overwhelm the human lives saved. But an idiot trained on short-term gain bears inordinately on a malignant faculty.

 

Courtesy IRIN news. 

 

Anopheles gambiae may meet its match in Medea. 

Scientists hope a synthetic gene known as Medea can wipe out the most common mosquito species that spreads malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists are trying to pinpoint the malaria-transmitting gene in mosquitoes and engineer genetically-modified mosquitoes (GMM) that lack the deadly gene. The hope is that GMM will prevail in a survival-of-the-fittest struggle between disease-carrying mosquitoes and the genetically-modified variety. 

Medea is an acronym for “maternal-effect dominant embryonic arrest”, with reference to the Greek myth of a woman who murders her children. 

In a recently published analysis of GMM research, scientists from the University of California wrote that the creation of a gene that could reduce mosquitoes’ ability to spread malaria “is not far away”. But given some 400 million infections annually - mostly in sub-Saharan Africa - GMM cannot provide an “all-in-one” solution, according to the scientists. 

pt/np

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