Crisanti Lab is exploiting molecular tools, such as CRISPR-Cas9, to fight malaria. With 619,000 malaria deaths in 2021, and resistance developing to key interventions like antimalarial drugs and insecticides, more innovations are needed.

Based at Imperial College London and a member of the Target Malaria consortium, the focus of our work is to develop genetically modified mosquitoes that could reduce the mosquito populations that transmit malaria. We have generated self-sustaining genetic strategies based on gene drive systems that can promote biased inheritance of a genetic trait causing its rapid spread within a target species.

We have shown the potential of this technology for mosquito population suppression in small cages as well as in large indoor trials that simulate natural conditions, and are currently preparing our mosquito strains for field evaluations, working on the challenges of resistance and off-target mutations. We are also developing a number of self-limiting technologies, which can be restricted in spread and/or persistence, which we hope to optimise for localised releases.

Recently, we have expanded our work into understanding the cytological and molecular mechanisms involved in gametogenesis, focusing on meiotic recombination, meiotic sex chromosome inactivation, and regulation of gene expression.