Image credit- thehealthsite.com
Oxitec, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Intrexon Corporation, is entering into a cooperative agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to develop a new strain of Oxitec's self-limiting Friendly Mosquitoes to combat a mosquito species that spreads malaria in the Western Hemisphere.
The parties will build on Oxitec's successful deployment of Friendly Aedes mosquitoes to reduce the vector that spreads dengue, Zika and other diseases and apply the self-limiting and male-selecting technology to anopheline vectors that can spread malaria in endemic regions in the Americas, eastern Africa and South Asia.
This collaboration will fund the development of a new self-limiting Friendly Anopheles mosquito strain designed to suppress wild malaria vector populations. This first Friendly Anopheles strain will build on the strengths of Oxitec's self-limiting insect technology developed and tested over the last decade, and transfer the skills and know-how into an anopheles strain for use in vector control efforts to combat malaria.
