Click the headline above to read a fascinating article published on the Scientific American blog by Francie Diep about combating malaria by using a protein found in scorpions to genetically alter a fungus that dramatically reduces the number of malarial cells found in carrier mosquitoes. According to the article:
The most effective treatment combined two types of the transgenic fungi. Only 25 percent of the mosquitoes treated with both the scorpine-enhanced fungus and the [SM1]8/scorpine-enhanced fungus carried malarial cells after treatment, compared to 94 percent of untreated mosquitoes. The treated mosquitoes that did still carry infectious cells showed a 98 percent reduction in Plasmodium falciparum in their bodies.
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