Mosquitoes spread Malaria. Right?
Well, one of the world’s Billionaires, Bill Gates has just discovered a project in Tanzania, which transforms the same mosquitoes into insects that fight malaria.
Sounds strange?
“I’ve been working on malaria for over two decades. I’ve talked with researchers in labs and parents who’ve lost children to a mosquito bite. I’ve seen promising new tools and surprising setbacks,” Bill Gates writes.
“But I’ve rarely been as excited about a new innovation as I am about this one,” the Microsoft mogul adds.
Made in Tanzania
In a lab in Tanzania, researchers are studying something incredible: a mosquito that can’t give you malaria.
It looks and behaves like any other mosquito.
It flies, bites, and breeds.
But what it doesn’t do is transmit one of the deadliest diseases on the planet—which means it could save hundreds of thousands of lives a year.
This mosquito was developed in 2023 by a team of African scientists at the Ifakara Health Institute in partnership with Imperial College London.
It’s the first transgenic mosquito ever created on African soil—meaning that scientists have made a small, targeted change to its DNA.
It was both a major scientific milestone and a major moment of African leadership in the global health space.
The project is called Transmission Zero, and its goal is as ambitious as its name: to eliminate malaria not by killing mosquitoes, but by making them unable to transmit it to humans.
When two organisms reproduce in nature, their offspring have about a 50 percent chance of inheriting any given trait from each parent. Gene drives essentially “cheat” this system.
Transmission Zero
Using gene-editing tools like CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), the technology works like a molecular pair of scissors and photocopier to cut out the unmodified version of a gene and replace it with the modified version.
By doing so, gene drives can ensure that a majority of offspring, sometimes over 90 percent, inherit a desired trait instead.
Because mosquitoes reproduce quickly and in large numbers—some species develop from egg to adult in as little as a week—a new, modified trait can move through the population in just a few generations and eventually become dominant.
That is the goal here.
Already, Transmission Zero project has engineered a malaria-blocking trait into the mosquito.
But on its own, the trait would follow normal inheritance patterns. With an added gene drive, malaria resistance would spread more widely and reliably among mosquitoes in the wild.
“I’ve written about other promising gene drive projects in the works that aim to reduce mosquito populations, for example by “shredding” X chromosomes so more offspring are male (since only female mosquitoes transmit malaria),” explains Bill Gates.
But Transmission Zero’s approach is different, because it isn’t looking to wipe mosquitoes out or even make a dent in their numbers. It’s just looking to lessen the harm they can cause. That makes it an important addition to our malaria-fighting toolbox.
What happens next
What makes the potential of Transmission Zero especially exciting is how little it demands of people.
No pills, vaccines, or behaviour changes would be needed to stop malaria.
Once released, the mosquitoes would passively spread protection, even in the most remote and underserved areas.
And because the malaria-resistant trait would be designed to self-propagate, the benefits could last for generations.
To be clear, no Transmission Zero mosquitoes have been released into the wild yet.
The project is moving forward in deliberate stages in close coordination with policymakers, regulators, and local communities:
Step 1
Create the modified, malaria-resistant mosquito strain and test it in the lab.
That’s now complete.
Step 2
Develop gene drive versions of the mosquito in the lab to ensure the malaria-resistant trait can get passed down to most offspring.
This work is currently underway.
Step 3
Conduct carefully designed field trials of transgenic malaria-resistant mosquitoes without added gene drive technology.
These trials—projected to begin in 2027 at the earliest—will be shaped by community input, regulatory oversight, and rigorous safety protocols.
Only if they prove to be safe and effective will gene drive versions of the mosquitoes be considered for future use.
Moving ahead responsibly
I understand people have concerns with projects like this; if I weren’t familiar with science, I might feel the same way.
It’s natural to wonder what could happen if a genetically modified organism spreads in ways we didn’t intend.
These are important concerns, and they need to be addressed with transparency, rigorous testing, and community engagement.
That is exactly what the Transmission Zero team is doing.
This project is an African led scheme. Developed in an African lab and using African mosquitoes.
At every step, it’s being shaped and strictly regulated by the very people who live with the consequences of malaria—and who must have a say in how it’s tackled.
But if the next phases succeed, Transmission Zero’s approach could become one of the most important tools in the fight against malaria.
Modelling suggests it could help eliminate the disease in lower-transmission regions and dramatically reduce cases elsewhere, especially when combined with existing tools.
Imagine a future where malaria no longer defines life—and causes death—in vast parts of the world. Transmission Zero may help us get there.