Collection of 28 mosquitos, a mixture of wild or 'normal' mosquitos with naturally red eyes and genetically modified mosquitos with white eyes, used as research tools to examine the traits that modulate malaria transmission at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 2018

Malaria is a pressing public health challenge, and a priority target for control, local eradication and global elimination. When people are bitten by infected Anopheles mosquitos, this transmits a parasite which causes malaria infection. These mosquitos are an example of how genetic modification technology has been used in the global fight against malaria.

Anopheles mosquitos generally have red eyes, but white eyed mosquitos were created by gene editing technology at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. This technology allows mutations to be made in virtually any gene, and so is a very powerful tool to examine the precisely what genes cause specific traits. By changing the mosquitos’ eye colour, the researchers were editing a gene which had a very simple visual indication of success. However, through this research they made their gene editing techniques more accurate, so they can be applied to other genes, such as those which make mosquitos resistant to the insecticide on mosquito nets.