Gene drive modified mosquitoes offer new tool for malaria elimination efforts

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Gene drive modified mosquitoes offer new tool for malaria elimination efforts

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Conrad Duncan,  Imperial,  2025.

Transmission Zero, a research team from Imperial College London in partnership with the Ifakara Health Institute and the National Institute of Medical Research in Tanzania, has developed genetic technology which renders a mosquito unable to transmit the malaria parasite and has a gene drive that ensures that future generations are also resistant to the parasite.

The technology could significantly reduce the malaria burden in high-risk countries, saving hundreds of thousands of lives each year, especially among children – who are disproportionately at risk from the disease. The work of Transmission Zero has been highlighted in a new Global Development Hub STEM for Development Impact Memo authored by Professor George K. Christophides, Professor of Infectious Disease and Immunity at Imperial, Dr Nikolai Windbichler, Reader in Genetics at Imperial, and Dr Dickson Wilson Lwetoijera, Principal Research Scientist at Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania.

Professor Christophides from Imperial’s Department of Life Sciences said: “The solutions we currently have for malaria are not enough – we need something new. “Our technology is equitable, it offers hope in the fight against malaria and doesn’t present economic or social barriers to malaria intervention access.”