It makes sense, given the UK’s role in malaria eradication; both Labour and Tory governments have invested billions in research, innovations, and partnerships since the start of the millennium.
The work, conducted in a laboratory housed in a converted shipping container, is fiddly: scientists must inject a specially designed gene into hundreds of thousands of mosquito eggs one at a time – and by hand.
Currently, only about 10 per cent of mosquitoes infected with the malaria Plasmodium parasite live long enough for the parasite to become infectious. The researchers want to lower that percentage further.
The gene they’ve introduced slows the parasite’s development in the mosquito’s gut, ensuring the mosquito dies before the parasite can fully mature.
The new gene is dominant, meaning that when a genetically modified mosquito mates, the modified gene is passed on.
Even with a relatively small number of mosquitoes modified, the gene will become “dominant in just four to five mosquito generations,” says a researcher.
It’s an ambitious and expensive experiment.
The modified mosquitoes are still undergoing testing. It might be 10 years until they are released into the wild. The teams here are still making sure the technology works – and crucially, that it is safe.
“We do not expect to have any adverse effects. But we are planning clinical trials to see if when one of the mosquitoes bites you it can cause anaphylactic shocks and so on,” Prisca Kweyamba, a PhD student and researcher on the project told The Telegraph.
“It’s important to have antimalarials, bed nets, and vaccines – but technologies like these mosquitoes are important and could overcome barriers to healthcare,” Ms Kweyamba said. “Regardless of your socio-economic status or geographical location these technologies can reach you.”
The researchers run tests using malaria parasites found in the blood of local people, ensuring the research is specific to the region.
“Our partners at Imperial have tested the same thing with a lab strain of the malaria parasite, but now we want to see what happens in the real-life setting here in Tanzania if the mosquitoes can do the same job with naturally infected individuals,” Ms Kweyamba said.
Vaccines
Over the past couple of years, not one but two malaria vaccines have launched onto the market: the RTS,S made by pharmaceutical company GSK and the R21/Matrix-M developed by the University of Oxford and Serum Institute in India.
It’s an important milestone – more than 200 vaccines have been tried and tested since 2002, and none have worked until now.
Both RTS,S and R21 have been recommended by the WHO for children under 5, and are starting to be rolled out in several African countries.
Ifakara has been involved in running the clinical trials for both jabs in Tanzania.
Currently, the institute is facilitating ongoing efficacy tests for R21 – the cheaper of the two jabs – on behalf of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford.
The trials involve more than 4,800 participants and are run out of Ifakara’s Bagamoyo campus just outside Tanzania’s former capital, Dar es Salaam, as well as in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Mali.
