A technique that might someday enlist mosquitoes in the fight against malaria has passed an early test in lab fruit flies. Researchers have been working for years to genetically engineer mosquitoes so that they don’t spread the disease. The effort revealed some malaria-resistance genes, but a thornier problem has been how to disperse those genes throughout a wild population.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.