Could attacking a new bacterium eradicate malaria?
Researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Uppsala University in Sweden, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen in Germany, and the Veterinärmedizinische Universität in Austria have discovered a new bacterial family that only seems to exist in the gut of disease-carrying mosquitoes (February issue, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology).
The researchers named the bacterium after 96-year old Professor Walborg Thorsell, who has spent a lifetime researching mosquitoes and malaria, inventing repellents along the way.
Scientists hope they can target the bacterial species Thorsellia and thus eradicate malaria.
