{"id":26195,"date":"2020-06-16T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T11:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/story\/durchbruch-in-der-malaria-forschung-malaria-beinahe-zu-100-gestoppt\/"},"modified":"2022-10-24T17:19:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T15:19:32","slug":"breakthrough-in-malaria-research-the-blockage-of-malaria-is-almost-100","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/story\/breakthrough-in-malaria-research-the-blockage-of-malaria-is-almost-100\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakthrough in malaria research: \u00abThe blockage of Malaria is almost 100%\u00bb"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Mr.\u00a0Herren, are your findings\u00a0indeed\u00a0a breakthrough in malaria research?\u00a0<\/h2>

Yes,\u00a0they are.\u00a0The breakthrough is that we found this microbe which is naturally\u00a0found\u00a0in mosquito populations.\u00a0And we were able to show in the laboratory that\u00a0the blockage of malaria\u00a0in an infected\u00a0mosqito\u00a0is almost 100%.\u00a0It probably already has an effect on malaria transmission\u00a0in\u00a0some places but\u00a0we still\u00a0need to find a way to increase the\u00a0prevalence\u00a0of this microbe.\u00a0Then it\u00a0will\u00a0be possible to use this microbe in the fight against malaria.\u00a0<\/p>

How do the mosquitos get infected with the microbe\u00a0in the first place?\u00a0<\/h2>

We found that\u00a0the mother mosquito transmits the microbe to her offspring.\u00a0This\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0quite common route of\u00a0microbe\u00a0transmission for\u00a0insects.\u00a0The combination of these two findings \u2013 that mother mosquitos pass on the microbe to their\u00a0offspring and that the microbe completely blocks the transmission of malaria\u00a0\u2013 feed in to a sustainable method to control malaria.\u00a0<\/p>

Would it be an option to spread the microbe to control malaria?\u00a0<\/h2>

This is what we need to investigate now.\u00a0When each\u00a0malaria case\u00a0is being transmitted\u00a0to\u00a0less than one\u00a0person,\u00a0the\u00a0disease\u00a0will be\u00a0going\u00a0down.\u00a0So\u00a0we\u00a0have to find out\u00a0how many mosquitos need to be infected with the microbe\u00a0that this\u00a0is\u00a0the case.\u00a0At\u00a0some places it\u00a0could already be enough to have 40\u00a0to\u00a050%\u00a0of the\u00a0mosquito\u00a0population infected with the microbe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Why don\u2019t we just try to get rid of the mosquito itself?\u00a0<\/h2>

Past\u00a0research\u00a0has shown that\u00a0this\u00a0doesn\u2019t work. The mosquitos find their strategies to survive, even against insecticides. To me it does not sound feasible when you\u00a0try\u00a0to get rid of a species that spreads across an entire continent.\u00a0<\/p>

Biovision\u00a0is supporting\u00a0icipe\u00b4s\u00a0work for malaria control\u00a0for\u00a0years. Has this support done enough\u00a0or\u00a0is it necessary\u00a0to\u00a0further\u00a0invest in malaria research?\u00a0<\/h2>

Most of\u00a0the research\u00a0today\u00a0aims at finding\u00a0better ways of combining the different\u00a0known\u00a0methods for malaria control in order to be more effective. The umbrella term for\u00a0this\u00a0is integrated vector management. And this is key to control diseases. My research however is\u00a0to develop new methods, because the\u00a0existing\u00a0methods\u00a0all have their disadvantages and\u00a0flaws. We are looking for new tools in the toolbox to better control malaria.\u00a0And\u00a0even\u00a0my findings won\u2019t be\u00a0implemented on its own but\u00a0only\u00a0in combination with different other tools.<\/p>

What are the next steps\u00a0in\u00a0your research?\u00a0<\/h2>

We still have to\u00a0proof that we found a\u00a0cost-effective way to control malaria. For this\u00a0we need to find out what conditions favour one mosquito to infect another.\u00a0We already found some interesting clues. We know that male mosquitos infect female mosquitos when they mate. We also know that there is a stage where the microbe looks like a spore which can be helpful for the spread in the environment.\u00a0So\u00a0the next step\u00a0will be\u00a0to look at the population levels and what conditions are needed to spread it.\u00a0After that we can do some calculations on how many spores and\u00a0mosquitos\u00a0we need to release in order to control malaria. But for this stage of the research we are still looking for funding.\u00a0<\/p>

In June,\u00a0Biovision\u00a0will release a report on the funding of agroecological research for development.\u00a0What is your experience?\u00a0<\/h2>

It has been difficult to get our project funded. Our research falls in the\u00a0category\u00a0of basic or fundamental science because we don\u2019t have proof that this is going to work. Getting funds for that type\u00a0of research in Africa is pretty tough.\u00a0However,\u00a0the\u00a0concept now is demonstrated\u00a0and\u00a0hopefully we now get the chance to test it in the field.\u00a0<\/p>

Do you fear that the Corona pandemic could result in funding going to other projects than\u00a0malaria control?\u00a0<\/h2>

On one\u00a0hand spending had to go into preventive measures\u00a0or to keep economies going. On the\u00a0other\u00a0I think that people are much more aware of\u00a0how important research on infective diseases is. Maybe in the short-term funds will go down, but in the long-term\u00a0people might be more acceptant for higher investments in research on health matters.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists of our partner organisation icipe in Kenya found a microbe in mosquitos that blocks the transmission of malaria. Will this lead to a new effective tool to control this deadly disease? Answers from Dr. Jeremy Herren who investigates on the microbe for icipe in Nairobi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":18422,"template":"","exclude-from-search":[],"newsletter":[],"region":[228],"projektthema":[469],"themen":[253],"class_list":["post-26195","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","region-sub-saharan-africa","projektthema-one-health-en","themen-knowledge"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-12 22:33:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"newsletter","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/26195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/story"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/26195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"exclude-from-search","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exclude-from-search?post=26195"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter?post=26195"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=26195"},{"taxonomy":"projektthema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/projektthema?post=26195"},{"taxonomy":"themen","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/themen?post=26195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}