Inside Gates Foundation’s $15M effort to release gene-hacked mosquitoes that end malaria with ‘killer sex’

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by parasites and poses a significant threat to nearly half of the world’s population. In 2021, an estimated 247 million people contracted malaria, with a staggering 619,000 deaths, per Imperial College. Most of those deaths affected children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.

Because current methods for fighting malaria are falling short, innovative approaches are required – enter Transmission Zero. The program’s end goal is to genetically modify specific mosquito species to make them incapable of transmitting the disease. The way this works is that the gene-modified mosquitoes get sent out into the world to breed with wild mosquitoes. The result is a new generation of mosquitoes that are born with an antimalarial modification.