Dave O'Brochta places his fingers on a net that covers the top of a bucket containing hundreds of Anopheles stephensi, a mosquito responsible for transmitting malaria. The mosquitoes slowly gather at the net and begin to probe his fingers. They are vectors for one of the world's most deadly diseases, and O'Brochta would like to turn them into supervectors. In collaboration with Sanaria, a Rockville, Md., vaccine company, O'Brochta is seeking ways to make the mosquitoes hypersusceptible to malaria infection. The company is designing a vaccine using malaria parasites harvested from the mosquitoes, and the more parasites that infect a mosquito, the better. (Click here for a feature on the impact of global health initiatives.) "This is increasing their production facility," O'Brochta says.
The project is one of a few O'Brochta oversees in the insect transformation laboratory at the University of Maryland's Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) in Shady Grove. The lab, ...
