Mosquitoes with their genes modified to help prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue, and West Nile. These diseases kill more people than any other disease in the world. In this case, scientists turned on a gene in the mosquito's gut that controls a type of protein called SM1 peptide. SM1 stops the development of the malaria parasite while it's living in the mosquito, rendering it harmless.

Female mosquitoes typically spread malaria to humans by transferring the parasite it picks up from other animals to its target when they feed on people for blood. When a female Anopheles mosquito is laying e­ggs, she needs extra protein, which she gets by sucking blood from vertebrate animals like humans. If the animal she feeds on is carrying a malaria parasite, the mosquito picks it up.