Scientists eradicate malaria-transmitting mosquitos using genetic engineering which make females infertile in new study which takes one step closer to wiping out the disease worldwide.

Malaria kills nearly 500,000 people globally every year, but scientists have now figured out a way to use CRISPR gene-editing technology to make female mosquitoes infertile, described as a ‘game-changer’ for ending the deadly disease. Researchers from Imperial College London, Genomics Genetics and Biology, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine were able to use a gene drive for the first time to not only show that blocking female reproduction worked in a lab setting, but natural-like setting as well. The researchers targeted the mosquito species Anopheles gambiae, which is responsible for the majority of malaria transmissions in sub-Saharan Africa. The gene-drives targets the gene known as ‘doublesex’ in these mosquitoes.

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