Mosquitoes Made Better in the Lab

If you want to protect people from malaria, keep the disease out of mosquitoes. It's an intriguing approach, but implementing it is harder than it sounds: In the wild, malaria-free mosquitoes tend to fare worse than their susceptible counterparts. Enter a mosquito genetically engineered to fight the disease. According to a new study, these transgenic bugs beat out nonengineered mosquitoes when both are feeding on parasite-infected blood. If confirmed, the study means that plans to replace entire mosquito populations with disease-resistant ones may have better chances of success.