A new weapon against malaria comes from an unexpected place. It actually comes from the guts of a mosquito. George Dimopoulos, a microbiologist from John Hopkins University discovered a class of Enterobacter bacteria that lives inside of certain Zambian mosquitoes. It causes the insect to be resistant to Plasmodium falciparum, which is a parasite that causes malaria. The two microbes were placed into a petri dish. When they squared off, the Plasmodium was prevented from growing. When mosquitos sucked up the parasite along with the bacteria, the disease was not transmitted. Dimopoulos found out that the bacteria prevented the development of Plasmodium by unleashing a torrent of unstable oxygen molecules. Dimopoulos believes that those molecules are either chemical weapons that are normally used against rival bacteria or natural waste products. “The idea is to feed mosquitos in the field with an artificial nectar supplemented with bacterium,” says Dimopoulos. “It would be like a probiotic for the mosquito.” Mosquitos only have to ingest a tiny amount of the Enterobacter bacteria and they will be resistant to malaria. It is possible that the probiotic could be deployed in mass and can be strategically used throughout the tropical world. This can help to stop the mosquitos from spreading the disease to the approximate 250 million people that usually contract the disease ever year.

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