Mosquito News and Research

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Zika and Dengue Virus Use Different Strategies to Infect Dendritic Cells

Zika virus and dengue virus are very close relatives. Both are mosquito-borne flaviviruses, and both specialize in infecting a host's dendritic cells.

26 Mar 2025

Mosquito Antennae Could Inspire Breakthroughs in Disaster Response

One of nature's most disliked creatures may very well unlock a breakthrough in disaster response.

22 Feb 2025

Zika Virus Tricks Mosquitoes by Making Infected Humans Smell More Appealing

Recent research reveals Zika virus modifies host odors, making infected individuals more attractive to mosquitoes, impacting disease transmission dynamics.

5 Feb 2025

Unveiling the Genetic Basis of Mating Behavior in Fruit Flies

The way fruit flies mate could be crucial to preventing mosquitoes from spreading disease.

27 Jan 2025

Breakthrough in Understanding Semliki Forest Virus Neuro-Invasion

In a recent study, researchers from Uppsala University show that the Semliki Forest virus enters the central nervous system by first entering the cerebrospinal fluid and then binding to a specific cell type before penetrating deeper into the brain.

16 Jan 2025

Study Reveals T Cells as Key Players in Complete Viral Infection Control

Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School and the Singapore General Hospital have discovered that T cells-white blood cells that can destroy harmful pathogens-can completely prevent viral infection, to an extent previously thought only possible due to neutralizing antibodies.

13 Jan 2025

CSIRO, Oxitec to Tackle Disease-Spreading Mosquitoes Threatening Mainland Australia

A new venture, Oxitec Australia, is taking on two of the deadliest virus-carrying mosquitos in the Pacific region – Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus – to fight the spread of diseases like dengue, Zika, and yellow fever, which claims hundreds of thousands of lives globally each year.

10 Dec 2024

Asaia Bacteria Accelerate Mosquito Larvae Growth

Mosquito larvae grow faster if they're exposed to particular bacteria, according to a new study that could help global health programmes.

5 Nov 2024

Rare Cases of Airport and Luggage Malaria Persist in Europe Despite Malaria Eradication in the 1970s

The study on Odyssean malaria reveals increasing airport and luggage transmission of Plasmodium, emphasizing the importance of monitoring in Europe.

17 Oct 2024

Mosquitoes use Salivary Protein to Aid Malaria Parasite Transmission

The study identifies AgApyrase as a key protein in mosquito saliva, enhancing Plasmodium transmission by regulating blood clot breakdown and immune response.

30 Sep 2024

New Insights into Mosquito Mating Could Enhance Malaria Control Strategies

A high-pitched buzzing sound in your ear is an unmistakable sign that a female mosquito is out on the hunt -; for they, not males, drink blood. Hearing that tone might make you turn to try to swat the pest. But for a male mosquito, that tone means it's time to mate.

2 Sep 2024

New Research Reveals Infrared Radiation as a Mosquito Host-Seeking Trigger

While a mosquito bite is often no more than a temporary bother, in many parts of the world it can be scary. One mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, spreads the viruses that cause over 100,000,000 cases of dengue, yellow fever, Zika, and other diseases every year. Another, Anopheles gambiae, spreads the parasite that causes malaria. The World Health Organization estimates that malaria alone causes more than 400,000 deaths every year. Indeed, their capacity to transmit disease has earned mosquitoes the title of deadliest animal.

23 Aug 2024

New Approach for Targeted Genome Editing in Wild Populations

Researchers from Macquarie University and the California Institute of Technology have discovered a novel method that, when published in Nature Communications on August 13th, 2024, might make it easier and more controllable for scientists to modify the genetic composition of wild populations than when using gene drives.

14 Aug 2024

Revolutionary Bacterial Engineering Reduces Mosquito Attraction in Mice

Genetically engineered human skin bacteria can make mice less attractive to mosquitoes for 11 days. Mosquitoes transmit a host of deadly diseases, including malaria, West Nile, dengue, yellow fever, and Zika.

1 Aug 2024

Harvard Researchers Crack the Code on Western Equine Encephalitis Decline

The story of the rise and fall of western equine encephalitis as a lethal disease offers essential lessons about how a pathogen can gain or lose its ability to jump from animals to humans.

29 Jul 2024

Decoding Dengue: The Use of Less Efficient Codons for Viral Advantage

Mosquito-borne viral infections once confined to tropical regions are spreading. Dengue virus infects up to 400 million people worldwide each year according to World Health Organization estimates, and no available treatments exist for this disease.

24 Jul 2024

SPT Labtech Brings the Power of Miniaturization to More Genomics Researchers with mosquito® Gen3

SPT Labtech, a global leader in the design, development and manufacture of automated instrumentation and consumables for life science applications, has expanded its nanoliter liquid handling portfolio with the launch of mosquito Gen3.

From SPT Labtech 12 Jun 2024

Study Reveals How tRNA Modification Influences Malaria Drug Resistance

Researchers from the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), have discovered a link between malaria parasites’ ability to develop resistance to antimalarial drugs – specifically artemisinin (ART) – through a cellular process called transfer Ribonucleic acid (tRNA) modification.

20 May 2024

Researchers Advocate for “Pathogen Prospecting” to Fight Malaria

A team of scientists is urging colleagues worldwide to participate in what they refer to as “pathogen prospecting,” which involves locating archival mosquito specimens in collections and museums and examining them for pathogens that could have transmitted malaria to humans while feeding on their blood.

2 Apr 2024

Unraveling the Complexities of Sugar Sensing in Insects

Insects have numerous receptors on their tongues, each of which can detect a different kind of sugar, unlike humans who have a single receptor on their tongues that can detect all kinds of sweets, including artificial sweeteners like aspartame.

7 Mar 2024