Do we need to start vaccinating… bugs?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science…
And we’re talking about taking malaria OUT of mosquitoes.
Enter Alexandra Probst and her team at Harvard.
After screening dozens of antimalarial drugs, they found two that could do the trick. They’re woven right into mosquito net fibers.
Here’s how it works. Mosquitoes land on the net and absorb the medicine through their legs. The malaria inside them is eliminated.
In lab tests, the nets wiped out one hundred percent of the malaria parasites! They even worked against mosquitoes infected with malaria resistant to conventional drugs!
A simple treated net could change the fight against malaria for millions of individuals annually. Curing the bug before it bites.
Reference: Probst, A. S., Paton, D. G., Appetecchia, F., Bopp, S., Adams, K. L., Rinvee, T. A., … & Catteruccia, F. (2025). In vivo screen of Plasmodium targets for mosquito-based malaria control. Nature, 1-9.