Modified Mosquitoes Failing in Malaria Fight
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Genetically modified mosquitoes designed to help scientists explore how to inhibit transmission of malaria failed to compete well with their wild cousins in lab tests, complicating efforts to battle the disease. Researchers at Imperial College in London tested the idea of genetically engineering mosquitoes by inserting easily traceable genes in anopheles mosquitoes, the kind that spread malaria. They reported in Friday’s issue of Science that the new genes disappeared within 16 generations.
