From ABC10
March 30, 2022
SAN DIEGO (CNS) — Scientists at the University of California San Diego received a $1.4 million grant to study new genetic technologies intended to curb mosquito populations and fighting the spread of malaria, it was announced Wednesday.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant will also allow researchers to mitigate hazards associated with using gene-editing systems in the wild, according to UC San Diego.
“My lab, historically, was a fruit fly lab,” said Ethan Bier, a UC San Diego distinguished professor of developmental biology and science director for the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society.
“About five years ago in collaboration with the laboratory of Anthony James at UC Irvine, we started transferring some of our genetic strategies into mosquitoes,” Bier said in a statement.