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[Michaelangelica]

The Scientist Ending Malaria with His Army of Mosquitoes

For decades scientists have been chasing a genetically engineered vaccine that would prevent the one million deaths that occur from malaria every year. Stephen Hoffman thinks he's found a better one -- in the mosquitoes themselves.

By Jason Fagone
. . .


It turns out, though, that there is a way to disrupt the life cycle of the parasite. If a scientist zaps one of these mosquitoes with gamma radiation, the parasites inside it become weakened. If this irradiated mosquito bites you, the parasites travel to your liver, same as before. But now they just sit there. They don't cause you any harm, because they never multiply into an army or hatch into your blood. And yet the parasites--as the scientist can't help but notice--are still alive, meaning that, in theory, they're capable of priming an immune response. Which is how vaccines have worked for more than two hundred years, going all the way back to Edward Jenner's discovery that when he scraped some fluid from a cowpox blister into a cut on a little boy's arm, that boy was protected against smallpox.

Malaria Prevention - Stephen Hoffman - Cures for Malaria - Esquire