Podcasts about Anopheles

On episode #80 of the Infectious Disease Puscast, Daniel and Sara review the infectious disease literature for the weeks of 4/24/25 – 5/7/25. Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Sara Dong Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of Puscast! Links for this episode Viral Incidence and Timing of Epstein–Barr Virus Whole Blood DNAemia in Epstein–Barr Virus-Mismatched Adult and Pediatric Solid Organ Transplant Recipients (Transplant Infectious Disease) Infant Respiratory Syncytial Virus Immunization Coverage in the Vaccine Safety Datalink: 2023–2024 (American Academy of Pediatrics) Impact of Nirsevimab on RSV and Non-RSV Severe Respiratory Infections in Hospitalized Infants (Influenza and other respiratory viruses) Hospital admissions of respiratory infections in infants plungewith nirsevimab RSV antibody (CIDRAP) Time to antiviral treatment in mild–moderate COVID-19 in the emergency department (Internal and Emergency Medicine) Delays in COVID antiviral receipt raised risk of poor outcomes after ED visits by 18%, data suggest (CIDRAP) Antiretroviral Postexposure Prophylaxis After Sexual, Injection Drug Use, or Other Nonoccupational Exposure to HIV (MMWR) Bacterial Validation and clinical implementation of cerebrospinal fluid C-reactive protein for the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis (LANCET: Regional Health) Bridging to transplant: TDM-Guided Outpatient Dalbavancin Therapy in Chronic Granulomatous Disease with deep-seeded Inoperable Abscesses over 11 Months (OFID) Nitrites for Urinary Tract Infection—Time to Say Goodbye? (JAMA: Internal Medicine) Fungal The Last of US Season 2 (YouTube) High Mortality and Associated Risk Factors in Kidney Transplant Recipients with Cryptococcosis – A Nationwide Cohort Study Over a Decade Using USRDS Data (OFID) Use of Dog Serologic Data for Improved Understanding of Coccidioidomycosis (JID) Parasitic Performance of a novel P. falciparum rapid diagnostic test in areas of widespread hrp2/3 gene deletion (CID) Prevalence of Anopheles stephensi in the Horn of Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis (BMC Infectious Diseases) Raising awareness of Demodex mites: a neglected cause of skin disease (Infection) Miscellaneous Scientific Integrity Under Threat: The Role of the IDSA, PIDS, and SHEA Journals in an Evolving Political Landscape (CID) Reasoning on Rounds Volume 2: a Framework for Teaching Management Reasoning in the Inpatient Setting (Journal of General Internal Medicine) Billing for and documentation of provider-to-provider interprofessional consults in infectious diseases (Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society) Music is by Ronald Jenkees Information on this podcast should not be considered as medical advice.

Can AI identify mosquito species? VectorCAM, a pocket-sized device, uses machine learning to differentiate species with 95% accuracy, enhancing malaria surveillance efforts Transcript Not all mosquitoes are created equal. Of the more than three thousand species, only a limited number of the Anopheles genus can transmit malaria. Even within that subset, subtle physiological differences affect how malaria spreads. Some mosquitoes prefer to bite indoors, while others outdoors. Some need large bodies of water to breed, while others only need a small puddle. Distinguishing these species is critical for effective malaria control—whether using bed nets, indoor spraying, or outdoor larval management. But identifying them by eye takes expert, entomological knowledge. Could AI help? The VectorCAM team at Johns Hopkins is working on just that. Their pocket-sized device uses a small light and magnifying lens, allowing a phone camera to capture close-up images of mosquitoes placed on slides. With up to 95% accuracy, it can identify mosquito species based on morphology in seconds. The hope is that VectorCAM will help health teams better understand mosquito populations, paving the way for more targeted and relevant malaria control efforts. Source Towards transforming malaria vector surveillance using VectorBrain: a novel convolutional neural network for mosquito species, sex, and abdomen status identifications (Scientific Reports) About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute podcast is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.

Note: I am not a malaria expert. This is my best-faith attempt at answering a question that was bothering me, but this field is a large and complex field, and I've almost certainly misunderstood something somewhere along the way. Summary While the world made incredible progress in reducing malaria cases from 2000 to 2015, the past 10 years have seen malaria cases stop declining and start rising. I investigated potential reasons behind this increase through reading the existing literature and looking at publicly available data, and I identified three key factors explaining the rise: Population Growth: Africa's population has increased by approximately 75% since 2000. This alone explains most of the increase in absolute case numbers, while cases per capita have remained relatively flat since 2015. Stagnant Funding: After rapid growth starting in 2000, funding for malaria prevention plateaued around 2010. Insecticide Resistance: Mosquitoes have become increasingly resistant [...] ---Outline:(00:25) Summary(02:06) Introduction(04:31) Ok, give me the 1 minute rundown on what malaria is and how we fight it?(05:22) Preventing malaria has historically meant distributing bednets(07:58) There's a lot of good evidence showing that bednets have been effective at preventing malaria(09:07) The percent of people with access to bednets and the percent of people sleeping under bednets have both stayed constant or increased since 2015(10:47) So what did cause the increase in malaria cases since 2015?(11:54) Factor 1: Population increase(17:35) Factor 2: Stagnant funding(23:21) Factor 3: Insecticide resistance(34:23) What are the relative contribution of these three components?(38:10) Factors that don't seem to be major contributors(38:27) The decline until 2015 and stagnation after do not represent trends in separate countries or regions(39:37) Removing PFAS from bednets doesn't appear to have affected experimental hut results(44:23) Anopheles stephensi isn't present in the areas with the highest rates of malaria yet(45:26) Nobody knows if climate change is making malaria worse(47:20) ConclusionsThe original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: March 16th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rxTPv3MdrsHiqK7kM/money-population-and-insecticide-resistance-why-malaria --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

This week, Jason Jarvis joins Aebhric O'Kelly on a deep dive into malaria, covering the lifecycle, symptoms, diagnostic tools, treatment options, and the latest vaccine developments. The discussion emphasises the importance of understanding malaria's complexities, the challenges in diagnosis and treatment, and the promising advancements in vaccine research to eradicate this deadly disease.TakeawaysParasitic protozoa transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes cause malaria.The lifecycle of malaria involves complex stages in both mosquitoes and humans.Symptoms of malaria can vary significantly based on previous exposure to the disease.Severe malaria can lead to critical conditions like altered consciousness and hypoglycaemia.Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are essential but not foolproof in detecting malaria.The R21 malaria vaccine shows promising efficacy and significantly advances malaria prevention.Public health efforts primarily focus on protecting vulnerable populations, especially children.Understanding the fever patterns can aid in diagnosing malaria and other diseases.Vaccination for adults is being researched, but current recommendations prioritise children.Staying informed through reputable sources like WHO and CDC is crucial for those travelling to malaria-endemic areas.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Malaria and Its Lifecycle14:58 Understanding Malaria Symptoms and Severity30:07 Diagnostic Tools and Treatment Options34:09 Vaccines: Current Developments and Future Prospects44:57 Resources for Further Learning

This week we discuss vectors in a hotter world.   Vector-borne diseases, which are transmitted by hematophagous arthropods such as mosquitoes, ticks, and sandflies, pose a significant burden on global public health. These diseases disproportionately affect populations in tropical and subtropical regions, where environmental conditions favor the survival and proliferation of vectors. Given that vectors are ectothermic organisms, their life cycles, reproduction, survival rates, and geographic distribution are heavily influenced by climate variables such as temperature, rainfall, and humidity. Consequently, changes in climate patterns can have profound effects on the transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases, altering their geographic spread and intensity. Rising global temperatures have led to the expansion of vector habitats into previously unsuitable regions, including temperate zones. Warmer climates accelerate the development of many vectors and pathogens, reducing the extrinsic incubation period of viruses such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. Additionally, increased temperatures can extend the breeding season of mosquitoes like Aedes aegypti and Anopheles species, enhancing their capacity to transmit diseases such as malaria. Conversely, extreme heat events may reduce vector survival in some regions, leading to localized declines in transmission. ​Changes in precipitation patterns also play a crucial role in shaping vector distribution. Heavy rainfall events can create new breeding sites for mosquitoes by increasing the availability of stagnant water, while drought conditions may drive vectors closer to human settlements in search of water sources. In particular, shifts in rainfall patterns have been linked to outbreaks of malaria, dengue, and West Nile virus in various parts of the world. Increased humidity can further facilitate the survival of certain pathogens within vectors, enhancing their ability to transmit infections. Beyond climate variables, other anthropogenic factors contribute to the spread of vector-borne diseases. Land use changes, such as deforestation and urbanization, have disrupted natural ecosystems, bringing vectors and humans into closer contact. For example, deforestation in the Amazon has been associated with increased malaria transmission due to the creation of new breeding sites for Anopheles mosquitoes. Similarly, expanding urban populations with inadequate water management systems provide ideal conditions for the proliferation of Aedes mosquitoes, driving the rise in dengue and chikungunya cases. Globalization and human mobility further compound the issue by facilitating the movement of infected individuals and vectors across borders. Increased travel and trade have contributed to the introduction and establishment of vector-borne diseases in regions where they were previously rare. For instance, the spread of Aedes albopictus, a competent vector for dengue and chikungunya, has been linked to international trade in used tires and lucky bamboo plants, which serve as breeding grounds during transport. The multifaceted relationship between climate change and vector-borne diseases presents a challenge for public health interventions. While climate factors influence vector dynamics, their impact is often modulated by socio-economic conditions, infrastructure, and public health responses. To mitigate the growing threat of vector-borne diseases, an integrated approach is necessary—combining climate adaptation strategies, vector control measures, surveillance programs, and community engagement. Recent research underscores the importance of predictive modeling to anticipate outbreaks and inform public health policies. Advances in remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and climate modeling are enabling researchers to identify high-risk areas and implement targeted interventions. Strengthening early warning systems and investing in sustainable vector control strategies, such as genetically modified mosquitoes and Wolbachia-infected mosquito programs, offer promising avenues for reducing disease transmission. In conclusion, while climate change is reshaping the global landscape of vector-borne diseases, its effects are complex and intertwined with other environmental and societal factors. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for developing proactive strategies to mitigate the risks associated with the redistribution of vectors and the spread of diseases worldwide. By integrating climate science, epidemiology, and public health measures, we can better prepare for emerging threats and protect vulnerable populations from the growing impact of vector-borne diseases.  

La lutte contre les maladies transmises par les moustiques, comme le paludisme, la dengue ou le chikungunya, pourrait prendre un tournant décisif grâce à une innovation révolutionnaire : des moustiques génétiquement modifiés capables de produire un sperme « toxique ». Cette technique, développée par des chercheurs australiens, repose sur la modification génétique des moustiques mâles pour qu'ils transmettent une toxine mortelle aux femelles lors de l'accouplement, sans affecter les autres espèces. Comment ça fonctionne ? Les moustiques mâles génétiquement modifiés ne piquent pas et ne transmettent pas de maladies. Leur sperme contient une toxine qui cible spécifiquement les femelles avec lesquelles ils s'accouplent. Après la copulation, les femelles contaminées ne survivent pas ou deviennent incapables de produire une descendance viable. Cette stratégie, appelée « suppression ciblée », réduit efficacement les populations de moustiques, notamment celles des espèces vectrices de maladies comme Aedes aegypti ou Anopheles, sans nécessiter l'utilisation d'insecticides chimiques. Pourquoi est-ce révolutionnaire ? 1. Efficacité ciblée : Contrairement aux méthodes traditionnelles, comme les pulvérisations d'insecticides ou les pièges à moustiques, cette approche cible exclusivement les espèces nuisibles, laissant intactes les populations d'insectes non vecteurs, indispensables à l'écosystème. 2. Réduction des maladies : En diminuant drastiquement les populations de moustiques vecteurs, cette technique limite la propagation de maladies graves qui affectent des centaines de millions de personnes chaque année, en particulier dans les régions tropicales. 3. Alternative durable : La résistance aux insecticides est un problème croissant dans le contrôle des moustiques. Cette solution génétique offre une alternative innovante, potentiellement plus durable et moins dommageable pour l'environnement. Avantages écologiques et sociétaux Cette méthode pourrait également contribuer à réduire l'usage intensif de pesticides, souvent nocifs pour les abeilles, les oiseaux et d'autres espèces non ciblées. Par ailleurs, elle pourrait s'avérer particulièrement bénéfique dans les régions à faibles ressources, où les campagnes de lutte traditionnelle contre les moustiques sont coûteuses et difficiles à déployer. En résumé, l'utilisation de moustiques au sperme « toxique » représente une avancée majeure dans la lutte mondiale contre les maladies transmissibles par les moustiques. Cette innovation combine technologie de pointe, préservation écologique et efficacité, offrant une solution prometteuse pour protéger des millions de vies à travers le monde. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

We share a special episode of our podcast to mark World Mosqutio Day. World Mosquito Day, observed annually on August 20th, commemorates British doctor Sir Ronald Ross's discovery in 1897 that female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria to humans. More than a century later, major advancements like genetically modifying mosquitoes—AKA gene drives—have the potential to reduce malaria cases and deaths dramatically, but not without hurdles.   About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.

About this episode: World Mosquito Day, observed annually on August 20th, commemorates British doctor Sir Ronald Ross's discovery in 1897 that female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria to humans. More than a century later, major advancements like genetically modifying mosquitoes—AKA gene drives—have the potential to reduce malaria cases and deaths dramatically, but not without hurdles. This special episode is an extended version of Malaria Minute, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. Host: Thomas Locke is the host of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute's podcast, Malaria Minute. Show links and related content: The Malaria Research Institute Editing Out Malaria, One Mosquito at a Time Gene Knockout Using New CRISPR Tool Makes Mosquitoes Highly Resistant to Malaria Parasite The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute Podcast Contact us: Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website. Follow us: @‌PublicHealthPod on X @‌JohnsHopkinsSPH on Instagram @‌JohnsHopkinsSPH on Facebook @‌PublicHealthOnCall on YouTube Here's our RSS feed

The guest on this episode of rootbound is Audrey Houseman. This is not the tea episode but Steve starts the show by talking a lot about the word “tea”. Then, Audrey talks about a relaxing tea and Steve talks about a tart tea. Finally, Steve makes a Texan analogy about tea.Show Notes!Etymology of TisaneKnow your ChamomileChamomile: A herbal medicine of the past with bright futureEtymology of ChamomileEffectiveness of plant-based repellents against different Anopheles species: a systematic reviewAloysia citrodoraNasanov Gland and pheromonesHere's Why Southerners Refer To All Soft Drinks As 'Coke'Teal House on the Hill Support rootbound

Originalmente exibido em 18.02.2019. O programa aborda os hábitos do mosquito transmissor da malária, o Anopheles, e, também como é possível evitar a doença, para qual ainda não existe vacina. Tratamento e sua disponibilização pelo Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) é um dos assuntos do programa de hoje. Marcela Morato conversa com o médico sanitarista da Fiocruz Brasília, Claudio Maierovitch sobre o tema. // CREDITOS DIREÇÃO VALÉRIA MAURO// APRESENTAÇÃO E ROTEIRO MARCELA MORATO// PRODUÇÃO CHRISTÓVÃO PAIVA// EDIÇÃO TATIANA VIEIRA// COORDENAÇÃO DE NÚCLEO VALÉRIA MAURO// PRODUÇÃO COOPAS//REALIZAÇÃO CANAL SAÚDE *** E-mail: canalsaude.podcasts@fiocruz.br Não deixe de acompanhar as redes sociais do Canal Saúde. Twitter: twitter.com/canalsaude Instagram: instagram.com/canalsaudeoficial Facebook: facebook.com/canalsaudeoficial YouTube: youtube.com/canalsaudeoficial O Canal Saúde Podcasts reúne alguns programas do Canal Saúde produzidos para televisão, que ganharam sua versão apenas em áudio. Equipe: Ana Cristina Figueira / Gustavo Audi / Gabriel Fonseca / Valéria Mauro / Marcelo Louro / Marcela Morato / Natalie Kruschewsky

Researchers compare the temperature of mosquito breeding spots with a decade early to examine its impact on malaria transmission. Transcript The effects of climate change on malaria are becoming clearer. Anopheles stephensi – an urban form of the malaria mosquito – is changing its geography, moving from Southeast Asia to parts of Africa and India. To investigate the link between temperature and malaria, between 2021 and 2022 researchers in Chennai, India placed data loggers that recorded temperature – and the daily range of temperature - in both indoor and outdoor settings. They took those measurements and compared them to ten years earlier, from 2012 to 2013. The daily temperature range of indoor asbestos structures increased from 4.3 to 12.6 degrees Celsius — compared to a marginal increase in other structures. Importantly, an increase in temperature was associated with a decrease in the incubation period – that's the time it takes for the parasite to develop in the mosquito. With invasive mosquito species entering new areas, combined with the shorter time it takes to transmit, it's becoming more clear that rising temperatures will lead to an increase in malaria cases in certain areas – and that preparation will be key. Source Impact of climate change on temperature variations and extrinsic incubation period of malaria parasites in Chennai, India: implications for its disease transmission potential About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute podcast is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.

Sono ormai diventate quattro stagioni. A Obiettivo Salute risveglio torniamo a parlare di zanzare con il dottor Claudio Venturelli, entomologo e autore di "L' innocenza della zanzara" (in.edit). Con l’esperto parliamo del ritrovamento in Salento di Anopheles sacharovi, la zanzara che può trasmettere la malaria e di Dengue e rischi in Italia e in Europa.

It's the last week of Carnivorous Plant Month.

Dando sequência a série "Mudanças climáticas X Saúde", nesta edição do "CBN Meio Ambiente e Sustentabilidade" o tema em destaque é a malária, doença infecciosa, febril, aguda e potencialmente grave. Ela é causada pelo parasita do gênero Plasmodium, transmitido ao homem, na maioria das vezes, pela picada de mosquitos do gênero Anopheles infectados, também conhecido como mosquito-prego. No entanto, também pode ser transmitida pelo compartilhamento de seringas, transfusão de sangue ou até mesmo da mãe para feto, na gravidez. As informações são da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz). Ouça a conversa completa!

On episode #49 of the Infectious Disease Puscast, Daniel and Sara review the infectious disease literature for the weeks of 2/14 – 2/27/24. Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Sara Dong Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of Puscast! Links for this episode Viral HIV Cure?  (NEJM) The effects of HIV-1 antigen-expanded specific T-Cell therapy and vorinostat on persistent infection (JID) The burden of HMPV and influenza associated hospitalizations in adults (JID) Bacterial Length of antibiotic therapy among the hospitalized with uncomplicated pneumonia (Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology) Guideline on fecal microbiota–vased therapies for some gastrointestinal diseases (Gastroenterology) Guideline on fecal microbiota–based therapies for recurrent C diff (CIDRAP) Reduced vancomycin susceptibility in Clostridioides difficile (CID) Fungal Histoplasmosisin non-HIV population (OFID) Parasitic Plasmodium falciparum under the host's Immune radar(JID) Did you hear Artemether-lumefantrine is recommended for uncomplicate malaria CID) Miscellaneous Uncompensated work in academic infectious diseases, seriously? (CID) Invasive mosquito Anopheles stephensi, Ghana (Emerging Infectious Diseases) Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Anopheles stephensi, a species of mosquito native to Southeast Asia, is finding its way to Africa. Unlike Anopheles gambiae, the species native to Africa, Anopheles stephensi can breed in tiny amounts of water year-round and has made a comfortable home in urban areas. It's also a remarkably adept spreader of malaria in places and to extents not normally seen in places across the continent. In an extended episode of Malaria Minute, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, guest host Thomas Locke discusses how researchers are tracking stephensi and how the invasive species could complicate efforts to control the disease in Africa. Learn more: www.who.int/teams/global-malaria-programme/prevention/vector-control/global-databases-on-invasive-mosquito-vector-species

Olá, bio-ouvintes! No episódio de hoje, iremos explorar os complexos detalhes da malária, uma doença que tem afetado comunidades em todo o mundo ao longo da história. Também conhecida como paludismo, a malária é uma doença transmitida por mosquitos infectados do gênero Anopheles. Esses insetos carregam consigo o parasita Plasmodium, responsável por desencadear os sintomas da doença. A malária é uma das doenças tropicais mais prevalentes e, infelizmente, continua a representar um desafio significativo para a saúde pública em muitas regiões.   CONTATOS cartinhas@biologiainsitu.com.br Instagram, Facebook e LinkedIn: @biologiainsitu Twitter e TikTok: @bioinsitu   APOIO Apoio recorrente na Orelo! Ou no Padrim! Pix: cartinhas@biologiainsitu.com.br Também no PicPay!   CRÉDITOS Coordenação por Bruna Canellas, Cristianne Santos, Heloá Caramuru, Ricardo Gomes e Vitor Lopes. Pesquisa, roteiro e locução: Nadja Lopes. Edição e mixagem de áudio: Marina Milito. Arte de capa: Helber Souza.   CITAÇÃO DO EPISÓDIO (ABNT) Biologia In Situ 127 - Bionews - Malária, uma história de zoonose. Coordenação: Bruna Garcia da Cruz Canellas, Cristianne Santana Santos, Heloá Caramuru Carlos, Ricardo da Silva Gomes e Vitor Estanislau de Almeida Souza Lopes. Pesquisa, roteiro e locução: Nadja Francisca Silva Nascimento Lopes. Edição e mixagem de áudio: Marina Milito Góes. Arte de capa: Helber Souza Carvalho. [S. l.] Canal Biologia In Situ, 21 de dezembro de 2023. Podcast. Disponível em: .   REFERÊNCIAS CAMARGO, E.P. Malária, Maleita, Paludismo. Ciência e Cultura online, São Paulo, v. 55, n. 1, p. 26-29, 2003. CÔNSOLI, R. A. G. B.; LOURENÇO-DE-OLIVEIRA, R. L. de. Principais mosquitos de importância sanitária no Brasil. FIOCRUZ, 228 p. 1994.  SANCHES – RIBAS, J.; PARRA-HENAO, G.; GUIMARAES, A. E. Impact of dams and irrigation schemes in Anopheline (Diptera: Culicidae) bionomics and Malaria epidemiology. Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical. São Paulo, v. 54, n. 4, p. 179-191, 2012. Disponível em:. Acesso em : 25 set. 2012. TADEI W.P. et al. Incidência, distribuição e Aspectos Ecológicos de Espécies de Anopheles (Díptera: Culicidae), em Regiões Naturais e sob Impacto Ambiental da Amazônia Brasileira. In:Ferreira, EJG et al(Eds.) Bases Científicas para Estratégias de Prevenção e Desenvolvimento da Amazônia. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, v. 2, p.169-195, 1993. TADEI, W.P.; THATCHER B.D. Malaria vectors in the Brasilian Amazonia: Anopheles of the subgenus Nyssorhynchus. Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo. v. 42, p. 87-94, 2000. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO). World Malaria risk areas. Library: Geneva, 2023.

Grand événementCollège de FranceLa ville du futurAnnée 2023-2£024Colloque - La ville du futur : La ville du futur, face au risque entomologiqueIntervenant(s)Didier Fontenille, directeur de recherche émérite, IRDRésuméPour faire face aux futurs enjeux urbains, de nombreuses villes se sont engagées dans un processus de « renaturation », à travers des programmes de végétalisation et d'actions visant à augmenter la biodiversité. Ces actions ont de nombreux impacts positifs sur la santé et le bien-être des habitants. En revanche, les éventuels impacts négatifs sont encore rarement appréhendés. Parmi ceux-ci, une augmentation de la biodiversité des arthropodes vecteurs d'agents infectieux, des hôtes vertébrés réservoirs, des agents infectieux eux-mêmes, en lien avec la création de nouvelles niches écologiques.Nous prendrons quelques exemples concernant les punaises de lits, les moustiques Aedes vecteurs de dengue, chikungunya, Zika, les moustiques Culex vecteurs des virus West Nile et Usutu, les Anopheles responsables de paludisme urbain. Nous verrons comment la création de parcs, corridors verts, forêts urbaines peut permettre l'introduction et l'installation de phlébotomes et de tiques impliqués dans des maladies humaines et animales. Les effets bénéfiques de la renaturation des villes sur la santé des humains sont indéniables. Cependant, pour ne pas compromettre le processus vertueux en cours, l'identification, la surveillance et la gestion d'éventuels impacts négatifs liés aux maladies vectorielles sont nécessaires.------------Le futur est dans la ville. En 2022, 56 % de la population mondiale, soit environ 4,4 milliards d'habitants, vivaient en milieu urbain. Cette tendance, si elle se maintenait, ferait que d'ici 2050, 7 personnes sur 10 seront citadines.Cette concentration humaine est source de richesse économique et culturelle, mais induit évidemment des risques, des fragilités, des inégalités parfois extrêmes. Elle est aussi génératrice d'effets environnementaux indésirables. La Banque mondiale estime que les villes représentent actuellement près des 2/3 de la consommation mondiale d'énergie et 70 % des émissions planétaires de gaz à effet de serre. Responsable certes, mais aussi victime de l'accélération des changements environnementaux, en particulier climatiques, caractéristiques de l'anthropocène.Ainsi s'impose la nécessité d'adapter les grands ensembles urbains à ces défis environnementaux. Certaines métropoles sont menacées par la montée des eaux océaniques. D'autres – parfois les mêmes – sont menacées par les accidents climatiques extrêmes, précipitations massives génératrices d'inondations brutales, canicules, voire simplement augmentation soutenue des températures moyennes impactant violemment populations et infrastructures urbaines. À ces défis vient s'ajouter la gestion du risque sanitaire : qualité et disponibilité de l'eau, risque épidémique, maladies liées à la pollution. L'« exposome urbain » reste à appréhender dans sa globalité, sans parler des altérations de la biodiversité microbienne, animale et végétale.Ces pressions environnementales, devenues globales – à des degrés variables – à l'échelle planétaire, sont aussi de puissants révélateurs et moteurs d'inégalités, que ce soit dans une seule et même ville où elles creusent un fossé entre populations aisées et populations marginalisées ou entre des villes situées sur des continents et dans des contextes socioéconomiques différents. L'urbanisation galopante est ainsi principalement portée par la poursuite du développement en Afrique et en Asie.Les politiques de la ville devront tenir compte de ces exigences d'adaptation, à l'intersection des impératifs socio-économiques, environnementaux, climatiques et sanitaires, pour bâtir un espace urbain résilient et accueillant pour tous. Elles pourront s'inspirer d'exemples d'adaptabilité de métropoles soumises de longue date aux excès climatiques. L'acceptabilité sociale et économique des adaptations indispensables à la conception de la ville du futur est un autre défi pour les politiques urbaines à venir.Le Collège de France, par le biais de son initiative Avenir Commun Durable, espère apporter une contribution aux réflexions sur ces questions complexes. Pour ce faire, il s'appuie sur un panel large d'intervenants couvrant un vaste champ de disciplines.À quoi donc ressemblera la ville du futur ?L'initiative Avenir Commun Durable bénéficie du soutien de la Fondation du Collège de France, de ses grands mécènes La Fondation Covéa et TotalEnergies et de ses mécènes Faurecia et Saint-Gobain.

Si Internet fue un país estaría entre los cinco mayores consumidores de electricidad del mundo. Solo el entrenamiento del ChatGPT requirió una energía equivalente al consumo de un hogar medio español durante 23 años. Cada vez que navegamos por la red dejamos un rastro de datos y de CO2. Reducir el consumo energético de la Inteligencia Artificial es el objetivo de la profesora de la Universidad de La Coruña, Verónica Bolón, que trabaja en el diseño de algoritmos verdes. Alda Olafsson nos ha ampliado una de las buenas noticias de este verano, la cesión a la OMS de la patente de la vacuna contra el coronavirus desarrollada por el CSIC (con testimonios de Ana Sanz, responsable de la oficina de apoyo al desarrollo de terapias y vacunas covid-19, de la Vicepresidencia de Innovación y Transferencia del CSIC). -En nuestra "Historia de la ciencia", Nuria Martínez Medina ha trazado la biografía del francés La Condamine, uno de los protagonistas de la expedición a Perú para determinar la longitud del arco del meridiano terrestre. Con Lluís Montoliu hemos analizado el alcance de las últimas investigaciones sobre un pangenoma que actúe de referencia para todos los seres humanos. José Antonio López Guerrero nos ha informado del hallazgo por serendipia de una bacteria del género Delftia que se desarrolla de forma natural en el intestino del mosquito Anopheles y bloquea el desarrollo del Plasmodium que causa la malaria. Con Bernardo Herradón hemos continuado nuestra exploración de la tabla periódica y en concreto, del litio, ese elemento clave y estratégico para las nuevas tecnologías. Eulalia Pérez Sedeño nos ha acercado a la biografía de la paleontóloga Ekaterina Vladimirovna, la primera persona en investigar los trilobites en la antigua Unión Soviética, creadora de la primera estratigrafía cámbrica de Siberia. Escuchar audio

TWiP solves the case of the 19 month old Female Having Issues, and discusses the finding that selection for insecticide resistance can promote Plasmodium falciparum infection in Anopheles mosquitoes. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Daniel Griffin, and Christina Naula Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Links for this episode Insecticide resistance in mosquitoes promotes Plasmodium infection (PLoS Path) Letters read on TWiP 219 Become a patron of TWiP Case Study for TWiP 220 73 y/o M w/ no significant PMhs who is referred to ED for fever, lethargy and progressive weakness as for the past 2 weeks. Thursday of the prior week he went to his PCP and blood work was performed. CBC demonstrated RBC inclusions. Labs also demonstrated anemia,  thrombocytopenia, mildly elevated total bili and ALT.  He was started on PO azithromycin and atovaquone on Saturday, however, he has not noted much improvement. He was seen in our office Monday and reports intermittent fever to 102, continued chills . Additional symptoms include dark urine, chills, occasional diaphoresis. Normally patient rides his bike 15 miles a day and runs 3 miles per day but states now he barely has the energy to walk a few feet and is now in a wheelchair. He report that he regular goes for Runs in parks in Queens. He denies any bug bites, tick bites, rashes, blood transfusions in the past year. Send your case diagnosis, questions and comments to twip@microbe.tv Music by Ronald Jenkees

Travel to any of the hundred-odd countries where malaria is endemic, and the mosquito is not merely a pest: it is a killer. Factor in the laundry list of other diseases that this insect can transmit—dengue fever, yellow fever, chikungunya, filiaraisis, and a litany of encephalitises—and the mosquito was responsible for some 830,000 human deaths in 2018 alone. This is the lowest figure on record: for context, one estimate puts the mosquito's death toll for all of human history at 52 billion, which accounts for almost half our human ancestors. How did such a wee little insect manage all that, and escape every attempt to thwart its deadly power? To answer that question, Timothy C. Winegard wrote The Mosquito, a book spanning human history from its origins in Africa through the present and toward the future of gene-editing. In its 496 pages and 1.6 pounds—the equivalent of 291,000 Anopheles mosquitoes—he outlines how the insect contributed to the rise and fall of Rome, the spread of Christianity, and countless wars—not to mention the conquest of South America, in which the mosquito both sparked the West African slave trade and, ironically, led to its end in the United States. This episode originally aired in 2019.Go beyond the episode:Timothy C. Winegard's The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest PredatorTo help you sleep even less at night, here is the WHO's list of mosquito-borne diseases and a 2019 report on how climate change puts billions more at riskWe recommend listening to this episode with a citronella candle at hand—and you can consult the CDC's guidelines for preventing mosquito bites for more tipsVisit our episode page for a gallery of anti-mosquito efforts, courtesy of Dutton Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.07.03.547458v1?rss=1 Authors: Kweyamba, P., Hofer, L. M., Kibondo, U. A., Mwanga, R. Y., Sayi, R. M., Matwewe, F., Austin, J. W., Stutz, S., Moore, S. J., Müller, P., Tambwe, M. M. Abstract: Pyrethroid resistance in the key malaria vectors threatens the success of pyrethroid-treated nets. To overcome pyrethroid resistance, Interceptor(R) G2 (IG2), a first-in-class dual insecticidal net that combines alpha-cypermethrin with chlorfenapyr was developed. Chlorfenapyr is a pro-insecticide, requiring bio-activation by oxidative metabolism within the insects mitochondria, constituting a mode of action preventing cross-resistance to pyrethroids. Recent epidemiological trials conducted in Benin and Tanzania confirm IG2s public health value in areas with pyrethroid-resistant Anopheles mosquitoes. As chlorfenapyr might also interfere with the metabolic mechanism of the Plasmodium parasite, we hypothesised that chlorfenapyr may provide additional transmission-reducing effects even if a mosquito survives a sub-lethal dose. Therefore, we tested the effect of chlorfenapyr netting to reduce Plasmodium falciparum transmission using a modified WHO tunnel test with a dose yielding sub-lethal effects. Pyrethroid-resistant Anopheles gambiae s.s. with established mixed-function oxidases and Vgsc-L995F knockdown resistance alleles were exposed to untreated netting and netting treated with 200 mg/m3 chlorfenapyr for 8 hours overnight and then fed on gametocytemic blood meals from naturally infected individuals. Prevalence and intensity of oocysts and sporozoites were determined on day 8 and day 16 after feeding. Both prevalence and intensity of P. falciparum infection in the surviving mosquitoes were substantially reduced in the chlorfenapyr-exposed mosquitoes compared to untreated nets. The odds ratios in the prevalence of oocysts and sporozoites were 0.33 (95% confidence interval; 95% CI: 0.23- 0.46) and 0.43 (95% CI: 0.25-0.73), respectively, while only the incidence rate ratio for oocysts was 0.30 (95% CI: 0.22-0.41). We demonstrated that sub-lethal exposure of pyrethroid-resistant mosquitoes to chlorfenapyr substantially reduces the proportion of infected mosquitoes and the intensity of the P. falciparum infection. This will likely also contribute to the reduction of malaria in communities beyond the direct killing of mosquitoes. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we caught up with Claudia Keller Valsecchi from the Institute for Molecular Biology in Mainz to talk about her work on gene dosage alterations in evolution and ageing. Claudia Keller-Valsecchi's team focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of how cellular function in eukaryotes is influenced by gene copy number variation. Recent findings indicate that precise MSL2-mediated gene dosage is highly relevant for organismal development. Since 2020 Claudia Keller-Valsecchi runs her own lab at the IMB in Mainz, Germany, where she tries to understand from a molecular mechanistic point of view how gene dosage compensation works, with projects in mosquitoes and in Artemia franciscanagene, as well as dosage regulation in the mammalian system regarding development and disease.   References Keller, C., Adaixo, R., Stunnenberg, R., Woolcock, K. J., Hiller, S., & Bühler, M. (2012). HP1Swi6 Mediates the Recognition and Destruction of Heterochromatic RNA Transcripts. Molecular Cell, 47(2), 215–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2012.05.009 Valsecchi, C.I.K., Basilicata, M.F., Georgiev, P. et al. RNA nucleation by MSL2 induces selective X chromosome compartmentalization. Nature 589, 137–142 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2935-z Keller Valsecchi, C. I., Marois, E., Basilicata, M. F., Georgiev, P., & Akhtar, A. (2021). Distinct mechanisms mediate X chromosome dosage compensation in Anopheles and Drosophila. Life Science Alliance, 4(9), e202000996. https://doi.org/10.26508/lsa.202000996   Related Episodes Epigenetics and X-Inactivation (Edith Heard) Dosage Compensation in Drosophila (Asifa Akhtar)   Contact Epigenetics Podcast on Twitter Epigenetics Podcast on Instagram Epigenetics Podcast on Mastodon Active Motif on Twitter Active Motif on LinkedIn Email: podcast@activemotif.com

Mosquitoes are excellent hunters. Anopheles gambiae—the mosquito in sub-Saharan Africa that spreads malaria—in particular loves to feast on humans and, it turns out, relies heavily on peoples' scent to track them. Hopkins researcher Conor McMeniman talks with Stephanie Desmon about his team's new study looking at the molecular components of human scent that are most attractive to mosquitoes, and how learning more about these alluring scent signatures could help in the fight against malaria.

Ulimwengu huadhimisha siku ya malaria kila tarehe 25 mwezi wa nne. Malaria ni ugonjwa wa kuambukiza ambao unaenezwa na mbu wa jenasi  anayefahamika kama Anopheles na kusababishwa na kidubini aina ya Plasmodium. Kulingana na shirika la afya duniani Nigeria inasajili visa hivyo  kwa asilimia 31.3, DRC asilimia 12.3,Tanzania kwa asilimia 4.1 na Niger kwa asilimia 3.9.Vilevile Kulingana na ripoti ya shirika la maendeleo ya Ufaransa nchini Kenya  AFD ni kwamba Kisumu inaongoza kwa visa vya malaria kwa hadi asilimia 40.Na Kwenye makala haya tunazungumzia ugonjwa huu na jinsi ya kupambana nao. Nimezungumza nae Peris Oloo  ambae anaugua malaria na anaelezea baadhi ya dalili alizokua nazo.kisha Daktari anaezungumzia Ugonjwa huu kwa kina na jinsi mtu anaeza uepuka.

Jährlich sterben viele Kinder, vor allem in Afrika, an den Folgen einer Malaria-Erkrankung. Nun hat die WHO einen Impfstoff empfohlen. Der Welt-Malaria-Tag am 25.April soll auf Malaria als globales Gesundheitsproblem aufmerksam machen.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: ZzappMalaria: Twice as cost-effective as bed nets in urban areas, published by Arnon Houri Yafin on April 16, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. I'm Arnon Houri Yafin, CEO of ZzappMalaria. I'm writing about our larviciding pilot published in Malaria Journal (Vigodny et al. 2023), and this post is my interpretation of the results. ZzappMalaria: Twice as cost-effective as bed nets in urban areas TL;DR: Zzapp Malaria's digital technology for planning and managing large-scale anti-malaria field operations attained results that are twice as cost-effective as bed nets in reducing malaria in urban and semi-urban settings. Call to action Use our solution Fund us How to save more than 140,000 people annually for a cost per person that is lower than bed nets? In 2021, 627,000 people died from malaria, more than 80% of whom were children. The number of people who live in areas at high risk for malaria is approximately 1.1 billion - which comprises the population of sub saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) and high burden malaria countries such as Odisha in India. According to estimates, more than 75% of these people live in urban and peri urban areas for which our solution costs less than US$0.7 per person per year. The cost to protect all these people is therefore: 0.7 1.1B US$0.7 = US$0.54B. The malaria incidence in urban areas is lower than in villages so it is assumed that the urban and peri urban population accounted for 45% of the malaria death: 0.45 627,000 = 282,100 people. Assuming that our solution can reduce malaria by 52.5% (based on a peer-reviewed article we recently published in Malaria Journal; elaboration below), our intervention can save: 282,100 0.525 = 148,100 people. As would be elaborated below, we believe the actual numbers of both cost and of effectiveness will dramatically improve over time. What is Zzapp's solution and how does its technology work? TL;DR: We believe in actively targeting disease-bearing mosquitoes, and use digitization to manage large-scale field operations focusing on treatment of mosquitoes breeding sites. ZzappMalaria harnesses entomological knowledge and data analyzed from satellite imagery and collected by field workers to optimize large-scale larviciding operations. In such operations, the stagnant water bodies in which Anopheles mosquitoes breed are treated with an environmentally benign bacteria that besides mosquitoes and blackflies does not harm any other animals (not even other insects) and is approved for use in sources of drinking water. Although larviciding has led to malaria elimination in many countries in the 20th century, it is not easy to implement since it requires planning, management and monitoring of large teams working kilometers away from each other. To complicate things, effective larviciding requires that a large proportion of water bodies are detected and treated on a regular basis (sometimes weekly). We developed a system comprising a planning tool, mobile app and dashboard designed to overcome these challenges. The system extracts from satellite images the location of houses and demarcates the general area for the intervention. It then recommends where to scan for water bodies, and helps in implementation through a designated GPS-based mobile app that allocates treatment areas to workers, monitors their location in the field to ensure they cover the entire area, and keeps track of schedules for water body treatment. All information is uploaded to a dashboard, allowing managers to monitor the operation in real time. Specifically designed for sub-Saharan Africa, our house-detection algorithm was developed to detect both modern houses and traditionally built huts. Our app was built to work on inexpensive smartphones and in areas with weak internet infrastructure. Its interface is simple and intuitiv...

An invasive mosquito species, Anopheles stephensi, is threatening to redefine malaria in Africa. In this episode, we speak to Eric Ochomo from the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Seth Irish from the World Health Organization, about the rise of the Anopheles stephensi in Africa. We discuss why the mosquito is in Africa, what this means for malaria, and—more importantly—what can be done.

The Anopheles stephensi mosquito is threatening to redefine malaria in Africa. In this episode, Thomas Locke, host of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute Extended podcast produced by the School Malaria Research Institute, speaks to Eric Ochomo from the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Seth Irish from the World Health Organization, about the rise of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito. Together, they discuss why the mosquito is in Africa, what this means for malaria, and—more importantly—what can be done.

The migration of Anopheles stephensi, an invasive mosquito species, threatens to redefine malaria in Africa. Transcript Malaria in Africa is mainly rural, and peaks during the rainy season. The primary culprit is  Africa's main malaria vector: Anopheles gambiae. But another malaria vector – called Anopheles stephensi – is making its way into the continent from SE Asia. Anopheles stephensi can transmit malaria in both rural and urban settings, and breed in small volumes of water. Because it's not dependent on rainfall, it can transmit the disease year-round. It can even transmit Plasmodium vivax malaria – a form of the disease that can relapse. In one study in Kenya last year, 16 out of the 55 mosquitoes captured were Anopheles stephensi. Almost a third. So just how much of a threat is Anopheles stephensi – and what can be done? Listen next time on Malaria Minute Extended. Source Anopheles stephensi in Kenya: potentially substantial threat to malaria transmission in urban and rural areas (Evidence Brief from Kenya Medical Research Institute) About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute podcast is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.

Antariksh Matters #1: Can India and the US Head into Space Together?— Aditya RamanathanIndia and the United States have taken a modest leap towards greater cooperation in space.Last week, the two countries' national security advisers, Ajit Doval and Jake Sullivan, kicked off the first meeting of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology or iCET. First set up in 2022, the focus of iCET was to enhance technological cooperation in defence as well as other sectors. A fact sheet released after the meeting outlined new avenues of India-US cooperation in defence technology, semiconductor supply chains, 5G, and space.  We'll be providing our take on some aspects of the iCET soon, but in this Technopolitik entry, I'll focus on the bits about space.Three steps outlined in the factsheet stand out. One, the two sides have agreed to train an Indian at the NASA Johnson Space Center, the main facility for training American astronauts. Two, both countries have also agreed to figure out how Indian companies can participate in NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme. Three, the factsheet outlines initiatives to increase commercial space cooperation and interaction between academics and experts. Let's start with human spaceflight. On India's Independence Day in 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Indians would be launched into space on an indigenous mission in 2022 named Gaganyaan. That ambitious plan fell behind schedule, largely thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. At present, the first Indians are not scheduled to go into orbit only in the last quarter of 2024. Two uncrewed launches will precede the mission to send Indians into orbit to test various parameters of the human-rated spacecraft.. Starting in 2020, four Indian Air Force (IAF) officers also began training at Russia's Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre for the Gaganyaan mission. While their training was spectacularly ill-timed - starting right at the onset of the pandemic - they nevertheless completed the course in a year. However, with Russia's space programme financially constrained and heavily sanctioned because of the country's ongoing war with Ukraine, India is clearly looking to diversify. While the agreement to train Indian spacefarers in the United States may have come too late to speed up the schedule for the first Gaganyaan launch, it is an important step in India's hunt for a reliable partner to train its ‘vyomanauts' as ISRO has called them. India and the US have also inched closer towards cooperating on lunar exploration. The fact sheet commits ISRO and NASA to bring together Indian private sector space companies and American companies involved in the CLPS programme. CLPS is part of America's expansive plans to return to the Moon sustainably. While NASA is to focus on some of the big-ticket projects like sending humans to the lunar surface, CLPS allows private companies to take scientific payloads from NASA and others to the Moon on uncrewed spacecraft. NASA's goal is to act as a primary customer for these private missions until they become commercially viable and self-sustaining.  By engaging India with CLPS, the US appears to have two goals. One is to find Indian customers for the American CLPS companies. The other is to involve India in the US-led multinational effort to return to the Moon. Much of this comes under the rubric of what the US calls the Artemis programme. Countries that want to join the Artemis programme are required to sign the Artemis Accords, a series of ten principles governing lunar activity. While most of these principles are innocuous aspects of existing international law, a few, like those that allow the use of lunar resources and call for ‘deconfliction,' raise concerns about the creation of de facto private real estate or even de facto sovereign territory on the Moon. By last count, 23 states including the US were part of the Artemis Accords. India has not signed up, evidently because it is concerned that the accords create a parallel legal framework that is designed to primarily serve US interests and impinge on India's own lunar ambitions.  If Indian companies decide to become customers or even partners in the CLPS, it will be interesting to see if they are implicitly or even explicitly expected to agree to some of the Artemis principles. The third important aspect of space cooperation outlined in the factsheet is a handful of steps to encourage greater commercial space cooperation and interaction between experts on both sides. India's Department of Space and the US' Department of Commerce are to lead a new initiative under the existing Civil Space Joint Working Group or CSJWG to “foster U.S.-India commercial space engagement and enable growth and partnerships between U.S. and Indian commercial space sectors.” While such initiatives may seem minor, they can help pave the way for Indian and American space companies to forge productive partnerships in a heavily regulated sector. Finally, the fact sheet also announces steps to make “talent exchanges” easier and increase interaction between ISRO and NASA personnel. While these initiatives don't address some of the gripes Indian private space companies have with visa rules, they are obviously intended to build trust between the two countries' national space agencies, which have long looked at each other warily. Biopolitik: The Promise of Gene Drive— Saurabh TodiGene drives are genetic elements of an organism that are transmitted to progeny at higher than mendelian frequencies (>50%). Gene editing techniques such as CRISPR–Cas9 have made gene drives extremely efficient in laboratory settings and have shown the potential to reduce the prevalence of vector-borne diseases, crop pests, and non-native invasive species. Research in gene drives, especially on mosquitoes, is being carried out by scientists at the University of California, San Diego, Texas A&M University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others. However, concerns have been raised regarding the potential unintended consequences, especially in terms of the ecological impact of gene-drive systems.Reducing the incidence of vector-borne diseases has become a technology demonstrator for gene drive technology. Mosquitoes engineered with gene drive systems can pass specific genes to the next generation at higher than Mendelian inheritance rates (>50%). This ensures that the target gene spreads through the wild-type mosquito population, despite some associated fitness costs. Gene-drive mosquito techniques work in two major ways: They reduce the population of mosquitos (population suppression); or modify (population replacement) a given vector population.Population suppression involves the release of modified male mosquitoes to suppress vector populations to a level which makes it difficult to sustain malaria transmission. Population suppression strategies are based on the inactivation, or knock-out, of genes which aim to reduce fertility or production of female progeny or are biased towards higher production of male progeny (which do not bite). In a small study, gene drive mosquitoes wiped out captive populations of mosquitoes in just eight to twelve generations. In contrast, the population replacement method aims to reduce the ability of a mosquito to transmit the malaria pathogen. Population replacement strategies are based on the inactivation of genes that enable mosquitoes to be effective vectors. For example, many potential effector genes have been identified to impair the development of Plasmodium parasites (that cause malaria) by Anopheles mosquitoes (the vector).The use of either population replacement or population suppression would depend on their relative strengths and challenges in the given situation. For example, population replacement can provide a level of environmental safety because it would not result in the elimination of an ecological niche that an opportunistic invasive species could occupy. However, it is a risky approach because the genetic modification will remain in the environment forever, increasing the likelihood of unintended consequences. To address these concerns, scientists are working on ways to reduce the risk of the unintentional spread of a gene drive mosquito and to ensure researchers hold much more control over their safe manipulation. Scientists at the University of California, San Diego, may have found a way to reduce this risk. They have created a flexible genetic "hacking" system for converting split gene drives (sDGs) into full gene drives (fGDs) while reducing the risk of using the latter.Although gene drive technology to eliminate vector-borne diseases such as Malaria hasn't been commercialised yet, it holds promise to reduce the scourge of this disease, which causes upwards of 600,000 deaths annually, predominantly in Africa.Antariksh Matters #2: Reducing Space Threats, Round 3— Pranav R SatyanathIn the previous edition of Technopolitiik, we covered the recommendations from our discussion document for our OEWG. On a positive note, that version of the document was published as a working paper for the OEWG. But not all was positive in the third round, as we shall see.Disagreements among states must not shock us. It is exactly what was expected of the group. It seems, however, that the OEWG is widening the divide between some member-states rather than bridging them. More prevailingly, the third meeting of the OEWG also revealed that states do not agree on the working procedures of the group, something that could eventually threaten to derail the entire OEWG process. I identified two issues that could cause deadlocks in the final round of the OEWG, which will be held in August this year.1. Consensus about consensus: The first major issue that occupied the minds of the member-states was regarding the procedure of the OEWG. The issue of consensus arose when Russia and China protested the participation of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) during the formal session of the OEWG. They argued that since members disagree on the status of NGOs, no consensus can be reached; therefore, agreeing on the participation of NGOs is invalid. The Chair, on his part, ruled the participation of NGOs in the formal sessions as valid since no consensus could be reached.Russia, China and other states interpreted the Chair's move as divergence from the OEWG's mandate and, therefore, an abuse of the Chair's power. Russia protected the participation of NGOs into the second day, arguing that the lack of consensus about consensus threatens the future of OEWG, including the adoption of a final outcome paper.2. International Humanitarian Law: The status of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) was already a contested issue in the opening meeting of the OEWG. The contest over the status of IHL grew all the more intense in the third round. China, for its part, argued that invoking IHL would mean accepting outer space as a domain of armed conflict since IHL deals with customary laws of armed conflict. Therefore, applying IHL would mean that states automatically classify outer space as a domain for warfighting. Russia echoed these sentiments while also arguing that Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty (OST) already enables the partial demilitarisation of space. Accepting the applicability of IHL in space, in Russia's logic, would overturn the principles of the OST.Of course, the issue of the need for pure legally-binding instruments and the status of non-legally-binding measures persist between states. These matters might sound mundane to many, including veterans of the space sector. However, it is important to note that with no common principles for governing space, we may end up in a situation where no advancements are made to govern the use of dual-use technologies or the deployment of space-based conventional armaments. Resolving the debates about the founding principles of outer space security, safety, and sustainability is essential to achieve stable, universally-applicable treaties. Our Reading Menu[Twitter Thread] Why does chatGPT make up fake academic papers? by David Smerdon[Report] Controlling the innovation chain: China's strategy to become a science & technology superpower[Paper] Digital Power China This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hightechir.substack.com

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2022.11.22.517370v1?rss=1 Authors: Konopka, J. K., Task, D., Poinapen, D., Potter, C. J. Abstract: Anopheles mosquitoes, as vectors for the malaria parasite, are a global threat to human health. To find and bite a human, they utilize neurons within their sensory appendages. However, the identity and quantification of sensory appendage neurons are lacking. Here we use a neurogenetic approach to label all neurons in Anopheles coluzzii mosquitoes. We utilize the Homology Assisted CRISPR Knock-in (HACK) approach to generate a T2A-QF2w knock-in of the synaptic gene bruchpilot. We use a membrane-targeted GFP reporter to visualize the neurons in the brain and to quantify neurons in all major chemosensory appendages (antenna, maxillary palp, labella, tarsi). By comparing labeling of brp greater than GFP and Orco greater than GFP mosquitoes, we predict the extent of neurons expressing Ionotropic Receptors or other chemosensory receptors. This work introduces a valuable genetic tool for the functional analysis of Anopheles mosquito neurobiology and initiates characterization of the sensory neurons that guide mosquito behavior. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we caught up with Elena Gomez-Diaz from the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine López-Neyra at the Spanish National Research Council. She share with us her work on the Epigenetics in Human Malaria Parasites. Elena Gómez-Díaz and her team are focusing on understanding how epigenetic processes are implicated in host-parasite interactions by regulating gene expression in the model of malaria. The team has started to investigate and uncover layers of chromatin regulation that control developmental transitions in Plasmodium falciparum, especially in the parts of the life cycle that take place in the mosquito. Furthermore, the lab has investigated epigenetic changes that are present in malaria-infected Anopheles mosquitos, this led to the identification of cis-regulatory elements and enhancer-promoter networks in response to infection.   References Gómez-Díaz E, Rivero A, Chandre F, Corces VG. Insights into the epigenomic landscape of the human malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Front Genet. 2014 Aug 15;5:277. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00277. PMID: 25177345; PMCID: PMC4133732. Gómez-Díaz, E., Yerbanga, R., Lefèvre, T. et al. Epigenetic regulation of Plasmodium falciparum clonally variant gene expression during development in Anopheles gambiae. Sci Rep 7, 40655 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40655 José Luis Ruiz, Juan J Tena, Cristina Bancells, Alfred Cortés, José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta, Elena Gómez-Díaz, Characterization of the accessible genome in the human malaria parasite. Plasmodium falciparum, Nucleic Acids Research, Volume 46, Issue 18, 12 October 2018, Pages 9414–9431, https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gky643 Women in Malaria 2021: A Conference Premier. (2021). Trends in Parasitology, 37(7), 573–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2021.04.001 Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/womeninmalaria   Related Episodes Multiple challenges of CUT&Tag (Cassidee McDonough, Kyle Tanguay) ATAC-Seq, scATAC-Seq and Chromatin Dynamics in Single-Cells (Jason Buenrostro)   Contact Epigenetics Podcast on Twitter Epigenetics Podcast on Instagram Epigenetics Podcast on Mastodon Active Motif on Twitter Active Motif on LinkedIn Email: podcast@activemotif.com

There is something beautiful about intelligence; it reveals how much we can become when we put ourselves to the task of searching and asking the right question.I am always fascinated by knowledge because our becoming, being, and living all rise and fall on the back of what we know. All of these begin with our intellect, the sum of our cognitive facilities, and the capacity for reasoning. This is where light comes to our mind, we develop, and our external world becomes a recipient of our realities.On this episode of the Word Café Podcast, I am honored to have someone who has embraced her intelligence as a gift and built a future.  Her name is Dr Nwamaka AkpodieteDr. Nwamaka Akpodiete is a post-doctoral research associate in vector biology with Target malaria, based at Keele University, United Kingdom. She conducts molecular ecological studies to understand the population dynamics and ecology of the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Additionally, she provides support and training in molecular ecology, ecological statistics, and scientific writing at African partner institutions. Nwamaka has a 12-year of work experience in Higher Education involving teaching, mentoring, laboratory and field research, project supervision, and related administrative roles.   Nwamaka has a broad-based undergraduate and postgraduate education and research training in biology, biochemistry, molecular biology techniques, next-generation sequencing, entomology, zoology, and environmental sciences. Her BSc (Animal and Environmental Biology) research project was on the ecological dynamics of soil microarthropods about hydrocarbon pollution. She identified some bioindicators of soil pollution and microarthropod species indicative of soil recovery. This interest in environmental health led to an MSc in Environmental Quality Management. Nwamaka's MSc project was on the dipteran larvae in polluted water bodies in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The project linked disease vectors such as Anopheles gambiae s.l. and Culex quinquefasciatus to indiscriminate waste disposal in Port Harcourt City, Nigeria. She also holds an MSc in Entomology and Pest Management from the University of Port Harcourt.  Her research interest in public and environmental health culminated in a Ph.D. in Entomology at Keele University, United Kingdom. Her Ph.D. research was focused on the evolutionary larval divergence in Anopheles gambiae s.l. About rice field domestication in Africa and improvement of An. gambiae s.l. Mass-rearing protocols for release. She also evaluated the use of zeolite in mosquito rearing and the characterization of microbial communities in the insectary via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The study revealed ecological consequences of environmental manipulation, which has resulted in the speciation event in the malaria vector An. coluzzii, resulting in the year-round transmission of malaria and increased urban malaria. The findings from her Ph.D. research are relevant for malaria vector control, irrigated agricultural and urbanization policy reevaluation, and improvement of sterile insect techniques and gene drive protocols.  Nwamaka is actively involved in malaria campaigns@Zeromalaria to eradicate malaria in Africa.Support the show

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Announcing $5,000 bounty for ending malaria, published by lc on September 24, 2022 on LessWrong. It occurred to me recently that if someone eradicated malaria, say by exterminating Anopheles gambiae via gene drives, they would not be paid. That sounds like a potentially embarrassing mistake, so I'm hereby pledging $5,000 to anyone that manages to accomplish such a thing. This way if someone from Dath Ilan materializes into our world and asks us judgmentally whether or not Earth would even pay people for eradicating malaria, we can all respond "Our society definitely has an explicit, preregistered financial reward greater than $0 in place for anybody that does that" and sidestep some awkwardness. Below I have written out the details for this new bounty in FAQ form. Malaria Bounty FAQ What specifically will lc wire me $5,000 for doing? I will give you $5,000 if you permanently reduce global annual mortality from malaria by 95% or more. For example: if you exterminate Anopheles gambiae or permanently render those mosquitoes unable to transmit malaria to humans, and this reduces incidence and therefore deaths from malaria to near zero, I will wire you five thousand dollars. Eligibility for the reward is independent to how this is actually accomplished, with a few restrictions outlined below. Do I have to apply somewhere? Nope. You may decide to contact me and provide relevant evidence so I am aware that malaria has been solved, but I expect I'll be proactively contacting anyone that actually does this after I hear about them doing it through the news. How will lc assign credit for solving malaria? Does developing the deployed technique count? The money will be given to the person or group that directly causes the reduction in deaths, e.g. by deploying the gene drive. If a pioneering group of researchers wants to get my money, they will have to follow through by successfully using their clever research to prevent people from dying. I would like to handsomely reward both groups, but there are already many existing charities you can extract money from in advance, if you're working on tools to end malaria and want funding for that. So far, none of the (awesome) people developing those tools have opted to use them, partly because they insist on getting permission from local African governments, which are delaying them for political reasons. I reserve hope that I will some day have reason to send these researchers money, after a few more million people have died, but in the meantime there's not as much marginal benefit. What if someone mostly eradicates malaria, but in a way that causes a legible negative side effect? If a negative consequence of you or your organization's solution is brought to my attention, I shall construct and consult an expert technology ethics review board, staffed by myself. This ethical review board will formally determine whether or not the bad thing is veritably and legibly bad enough to outweigh saving hundreds of thousands of lives per year. If the review panel's unanimous finding is that this is indeed the case, then the party responsible will not receive the $5,000. Examples of some malaria reduction techniques which could cause someone to be disqualified by the expert panel include: Starting a nuclear war. Releasing an AGI that turns most of the earth into paperclips. Using dark magicks to lower Africa into the sea. Examples of secondary effects that are explicitly noted not to disqualify award recipients include: Somehow-negative press coverage about particular groups the review panel likes, such as rationalists, effective altruists, or LessWrong users. Accidental eradication of a few non-mosquito species, in a manner that is not historically notable against the larger backdrop of the Holocene extinction event. Sternly worded condemnation by a ...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Announcing $5,000 bounty for ending malaria, published by lc on September 24, 2022 on LessWrong. It occurred to me recently that if someone eradicated malaria, say by exterminating Anopheles gambiae via gene drives, they would not be paid. That sounds like a potentially embarrassing mistake, so I'm hereby pledging $5,000 to anyone that manages to accomplish such a thing. This way if someone from Dath Ilan materializes into our world and asks us judgmentally whether or not Earth would even pay people for eradicating malaria, we can all respond "Our society definitely has an explicit, preregistered financial reward greater than $0 in place for anybody that does that" and sidestep some awkwardness. Below I have written out the details for this new bounty in FAQ form. Malaria Bounty FAQ What specifically will lc wire me $5,000 for doing? I will give you $5,000 if you permanently reduce global annual mortality from malaria by 95% or more. For example: if you exterminate Anopheles gambiae or permanently render those mosquitoes unable to transmit malaria to humans, and this reduces incidence and therefore deaths from malaria to near zero, I will wire you five thousand dollars. Eligibility for the reward is independent to how this is actually accomplished, with a few restrictions outlined below. Do I have to apply somewhere? Nope. You may decide to contact me and provide relevant evidence so I am aware that malaria has been solved, but I expect I'll be proactively contacting anyone that actually does this after I hear about them doing it through the news. How will lc assign credit for solving malaria? Does developing the deployed technique count? The money will be given to the person or group that directly causes the reduction in deaths, e.g. by deploying the gene drive. If a pioneering group of researchers wants to get my money, they will have to follow through by successfully using their clever research to prevent people from dying. I would like to handsomely reward both groups, but there are already many existing charities you can extract money from in advance, if you're working on tools to end malaria and want funding for that. So far, none of the (awesome) people developing those tools have opted to use them, partly because they insist on getting permission from local African governments, which are delaying them for political reasons. I reserve hope that I will some day have reason to send these researchers money, after a few more million people have died, but in the meantime there's not as much marginal benefit. What if someone mostly eradicates malaria, but in a way that causes a legible negative side effect? If a negative consequence of you or your organization's solution is brought to my attention, I shall construct and consult an expert technology ethics review board, staffed by myself. This ethical review board will formally determine whether or not the bad thing is veritably and legibly bad enough to outweigh saving hundreds of thousands of lives per year. If the review panel's unanimous finding is that this is indeed the case, then the party responsible will not receive the $5,000. Examples of some malaria reduction techniques which could cause someone to be disqualified by the expert panel include: Starting a nuclear war. Releasing an AGI that turns most of the earth into paperclips. Using dark magicks to lower Africa into the sea. Examples of secondary effects that are explicitly noted not to disqualify award recipients include: Somehow-negative press coverage about particular groups the review panel likes, such as rationalists, effective altruists, or LessWrong users. Accidental eradication of a few non-mosquito species, in a manner that is not historically notable against the larger backdrop of the Holocene extinction event. Sternly worded condemnation by a ...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Announcing $5,000 bounty for ending malaria, published by lc on September 24, 2022 on LessWrong. It occurred to me recently that if someone eradicated malaria, say by exterminating Anopheles gambiae via gene drives, they would not be paid. That sounds like a potentially embarrassing mistake, so I'm hereby pledging $5,000 to anyone that manages to accomplish such a thing. This way if someone from Dath Ilan materializes into our world and asks us judgmentally whether or not Earth would even pay people for eradicating malaria, we can all respond "Our society definitely has an explicit, preregistered financial reward greater than $0 in place for anybody that does that" and sidestep some awkwardness. Below I have written out the details for this new bounty in FAQ form. Malaria Bounty FAQ What specifically will lc wire me $5,000 for doing? I will give you $5,000 if you permanently reduce global annual mortality from malaria by 95% or more. For example: if you exterminate Anopheles gambiae or permanently render those mosquitoes unable to transmit malaria to humans, and this reduces incidence and therefore deaths from malaria to near zero, I will wire you five thousand dollars. Eligibility for the reward is independent to how this is actually accomplished, with a few restrictions outlined below. Do I have to apply somewhere? Nope. You may decide to contact me and provide relevant evidence so I am aware that malaria has been solved, but I expect I'll be proactively contacting anyone that actually does this after I hear about them doing it through the news. How will lc assign credit for solving malaria? Does developing the deployed technique count? The money will be given to the person or group that directly causes the reduction in deaths, e.g. by deploying the gene drive. If a pioneering group of researchers wants to get my money, they will have to follow through by successfully using their clever research to prevent people from dying. I would like to handsomely reward both groups, but there are already many existing charities you can extract money from in advance, if you're working on tools to end malaria and want funding for that. So far, none of the (awesome) people developing those tools have opted to use them, partly because they insist on getting permission from local African governments, which are delaying them for political reasons. I reserve hope that I will some day have reason to send these researchers money, after a few more million people have died, but in the meantime there's not as much marginal benefit. What if someone mostly eradicates malaria, but in a way that causes a legible negative side effect? If a negative consequence of you or your organization's solution is brought to my attention, I shall construct and consult an expert technology ethics review board, staffed by myself. This ethical review board will formally determine whether or not the bad thing is veritably and legibly bad enough to outweigh saving hundreds of thousands of lives per year. If the review panel's unanimous finding is that this is indeed the case, then the party responsible will not receive the $5,000. Examples of some malaria reduction techniques which could cause someone to be disqualified by the expert panel include: Starting a nuclear war. Releasing an AGI that turns most of the earth into paperclips. Using dark magicks to lower Africa into the sea. Examples of secondary effects that are explicitly noted not to disqualify award recipients include: Somehow-negative press coverage about particular groups the review panel likes, such as rationalists, effective altruists, or LessWrong users. Accidental eradication of a few non-mosquito species, in a manner that is not historically notable against the larger backdrop of the Holocene extinction event. Sternly worded condemnation by a ...

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Gene drives: why the wait?, published by Metacelsus on September 19, 2022 on LessWrong. (Crossposted from my Substack) If you've been following biology news over the last few years, you might have heard of an interesting concept called a “gene drive”. The overall idea is to engineer a genetic allele that transmits itself to all offspring of a sexually reproducing organism, instead of being inherited by 50% as usual. This allele can also perform some other biological function (a relevant example is causing female sterility). A gene drive spreads through a population. From Esvelt et al. 2014 (CC-BY) In multiple trials, modern CRISPR-based gene drives have shown high efficacy in spreading through populations of caged Anopheles mosquitoes and completely suppressing their reproduction. Since Anopheles mosquitoes are the only ones that transmit malaria, causing their extinction would directly save hundreds of thousands of lives per year. Similar gene drives targeted to other types of mosquitoes (Aedes, Culex, etc.) could also eliminate diseases such as dengue fever, Zika virus, and West Nile virus. However, in spite of promising laboratory trials, gene drives have not yet been deployed in the wild. But why not? History of gene drives Although the technology to build effective gene drives did not exist until recently, the idea has been around for a while. In fact, gene drives occur naturally. Some well-known examples are transposons in flies, homing endonucleases in algae, and segregation distorters in mice. The idea of engineering a site-specific nuclease as a gene drive was developed as early as 2003, and in the decade that followed there were several efforts to develop these, with the labs of Austin Burt and Andrea Crisanti taking a lead role. These early systems showed some biased inheritance, but were not stable for more than a few generations. The advent of CRISPR as a gene editing system opened up a new opportunity. A paper in 2014 by Kevin Esvelt and co-workers proposed Cas9 as a nuclease for a gene drive, with several properties making it ideal for the task. It lacks repetitive sequences that caused problems with earlier gene drives using zinc-finger nucleases or TALENs. It has a very high efficiency of cutting. It is easy to target a new site by simply changing the guide RNA. Several nearby sites could be targeted at once, using different guide RNAs. From Esvelt et al. 2014 (CC-BY) CRISPR-based gene drives quickly gained popularity in the field, and by 2018 the Crisanti lab had demonstrated a working gene drive that could efficiently suppress populations of Anopheles gambiae by targeting an exon of the doublesex gene required for female development. At the time this was announced, I was studying at the University of Cambridge, and attended a public lecture by Prof. Crisanti about his lab's work. The overall mood in the room was almost euphoric: here was a technology that could save millions of lives, the best thing since Borlaug's wheat! Since that lecture, about 2 million people, mostly children in Africa, have died of malaria. Gene drive research has not stood still: the Crisanti lab tested their doublesex drive in larger cages of mosquitoes, and it again completely eliminated the populations. But given the millions of lives at stake, what's taking so long for this gene drive to be released? See also: the battle against malaria in Africa has stalled Why the wait? There are two good arguments against the immediate release of gene drives to eliminate mosquitoes. First, nuclease gene drives have the possibility of generating resistant alleles, making future gene drives not work against the same target. Therefore, it's important to get it right the first time, otherwise the potential of gene drives could be wasted. The goal of the large cage trials I mentioned earli...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Gene drives: why the wait?, published by Metacelsus on September 19, 2022 on LessWrong. (Crossposted from my Substack) If you've been following biology news over the last few years, you might have heard of an interesting concept called a “gene drive”. The overall idea is to engineer a genetic allele that transmits itself to all offspring of a sexually reproducing organism, instead of being inherited by 50% as usual. This allele can also perform some other biological function (a relevant example is causing female sterility). A gene drive spreads through a population. From Esvelt et al. 2014 (CC-BY) In multiple trials, modern CRISPR-based gene drives have shown high efficacy in spreading through populations of caged Anopheles mosquitoes and completely suppressing their reproduction. Since Anopheles mosquitoes are the only ones that transmit malaria, causing their extinction would directly save hundreds of thousands of lives per year. Similar gene drives targeted to other types of mosquitoes (Aedes, Culex, etc.) could also eliminate diseases such as dengue fever, Zika virus, and West Nile virus. However, in spite of promising laboratory trials, gene drives have not yet been deployed in the wild. But why not? History of gene drives Although the technology to build effective gene drives did not exist until recently, the idea has been around for a while. In fact, gene drives occur naturally. Some well-known examples are transposons in flies, homing endonucleases in algae, and segregation distorters in mice. The idea of engineering a site-specific nuclease as a gene drive was developed as early as 2003, and in the decade that followed there were several efforts to develop these, with the labs of Austin Burt and Andrea Crisanti taking a lead role. These early systems showed some biased inheritance, but were not stable for more than a few generations. The advent of CRISPR as a gene editing system opened up a new opportunity. A paper in 2014 by Kevin Esvelt and co-workers proposed Cas9 as a nuclease for a gene drive, with several properties making it ideal for the task. It lacks repetitive sequences that caused problems with earlier gene drives using zinc-finger nucleases or TALENs. It has a very high efficiency of cutting. It is easy to target a new site by simply changing the guide RNA. Several nearby sites could be targeted at once, using different guide RNAs. From Esvelt et al. 2014 (CC-BY) CRISPR-based gene drives quickly gained popularity in the field, and by 2018 the Crisanti lab had demonstrated a working gene drive that could efficiently suppress populations of Anopheles gambiae by targeting an exon of the doublesex gene required for female development. At the time this was announced, I was studying at the University of Cambridge, and attended a public lecture by Prof. Crisanti about his lab's work. The overall mood in the room was almost euphoric: here was a technology that could save millions of lives, the best thing since Borlaug's wheat! Since that lecture, about 2 million people, mostly children in Africa, have died of malaria. Gene drive research has not stood still: the Crisanti lab tested their doublesex drive in larger cages of mosquitoes, and it again completely eliminated the populations. But given the millions of lives at stake, what's taking so long for this gene drive to be released? See also: the battle against malaria in Africa has stalled Why the wait? There are two good arguments against the immediate release of gene drives to eliminate mosquitoes. First, nuclease gene drives have the possibility of generating resistant alleles, making future gene drives not work against the same target. Therefore, it's important to get it right the first time, otherwise the potential of gene drives could be wasted. The goal of the large cage trials I mentioned earli...

英语新闻∣南方蚊子疑似变少，网友：终于连蚊子都要被热死了？Have you noticed feweritchy, red bumps on your skin this summer? It's probably due to the hot, dry weather this summer.今年夏天，瘙痒红肿的蚊子包少了很多，原因就是今年夏天炎热干燥的天气。The right amount of rain at the right time is needed for mosquitoes to breed because it lays eggs on the surface ofstagnantwater.蚊子的繁殖需要合适的环境和适当的降雨量，因为蚊子会在死水表面产卵。Individuals reared at higher temperatures may develop more rapidly compared to lower temperatures, but adults tend to be smaller with reduced fitness given that size is often positively related tofecundity.在较高温度下长大的个体可能比在较低温度下成长得更快，但成年个体往往体型较小，适合度降低，因为体型通常与繁殖能力呈正相关。As temperatures climb higher, mosquito activity can decline. Mosquitoes will bite less when it becomes excessively hot.随着气温上升，蚊子的活动会减少。天气过于炎热时，蚊子叮咬的次数就会减少。Higher temperatures also make any diseases they carry more active and hence moretransmissible. So when mosquitoes are around, a cool spell following very hot temperatures could be ripe for mosquito borne diseases, as highly infectious mosquitoes increase their biting activity.虽然高温不利于蚊子生存，却有利于蚊子携带的病毒传播。只要一息尚存，高温之后的凉爽期，很可能就成了蚊子传播疾病的最佳时机。Mosquito speciesthat transmit diseases mainly include Culex, Aedes, and Anopheles. Thediseases includemalaria, filariasis, and dengue.主要有三类蚊子会传播疾病：库蚊、伊蚊和按蚊，传播的疾病包括疟疾、丝虫病、和登革热等。Beekeepers in European reported unusual deaths of honeybee queens, drones and small colonies. Drones, which are the reproductive males, spontaneously ejaculate when they die from stress.最近连月高温，许多欧洲国家出现蜜蜂连续死亡，而且死去的大部分是雄蜂。雄蜂对温度十分敏感，高温的压力下，雄蜂的自然反应是射精，然后死去。Worryingly, male fertility likely begins to decline well before the drones die. This means that after a heat wave, new queens—the reproductive females—will have fewer opportunities to mate. Colonies headed by poorly mated queens are more likely to collapse, and this could pose problems for farmers who rely on honeybees topollinatetheir crops.就算雄蜂熬过了高温，生育能力也会受损。等到热浪过去，蜂后与雄蜂的交配机会减少，可能会导致整个蜂群的崩溃。依赖蜜蜂授粉的植物也会遭殃，其中有不少是人类赖以生存的农作物。To the end, the decline of mosquitoes is also a wake-up call from nature. If left unchecked, climate change and environmental degradation will eventually affect human beings.说到底，蚊子变少，也是大自然对我们敲响的警钟。如果放任气候变暖、环境恶化，终有一天会波及人类自身。itchy英[ˈɪtʃi]美[ˈɪtʃi]adj.（使）发痒的stagnant 英[ˈstæɡnənt]美[ˈstæɡnənt]adj. 不流动的，停滞的fecundity英[fɪ'kʌndətɪ]美[fɪˈkʌndətɪ]n. 多产； 肥沃； 产卵力transmissible英[træns'mɪsəbl]美[træns'mɪsəbəl]adj. 可传送的，可遗传的pollinate英[ˈpɒləneɪt]美[ˈpɑləneɪt]vt. 给…传授花粉

Order and disorder, a freeform haze of garbage guitars, shorted electronics, found detritus, collage, linear songs, sounds from strange lands. Contact me at btradio85@gmail.com. Archives brianturnershow.comHELLO FROM JOE WALSHDEBRIS - Flight Taken - Static Disposal (1976, re: Anopheles, 1999)BRÚSIT - Dzieci w Beczkach - Brúsit EP (Syf, 2022)LITTLE CAROLYN SUE - I Hate Men - 7" (Lar, 1968)NEGATIVE NANCIES - G.O.S.T. - You Do You (CocoMuse Releases, 2018)PUPPET WIPES - A Web For Every Garden - The Stones Are Watching & They Can Be A Handful (Siltbreeze, 2022)KAORU ABE NO FUTURE - Music Is Plastic Bag - Another Wrong Way, Again (Presses Précaires, 2022)ELI WALLACE / CECELIA LOPEZ / MICHAEL FOSTER / SEAN ALI - Stratosphere - The Inflatable Leviathan (Triptick Tapes, 2022)MICK HARRIS - Two Weeks - HedNod Thirteen (BC, 2022)STICK MEN WITH RAYGUNS - Christian Rat Attack - Some People Deserve To Suffer (Emperor Jones, 2002)ZAVAR - Himnusz - Ka A Felelós? (cs, Szégyen Kazetták, 2021)MEDWEGYA - Metronome Is Evilness - Raw Psychedelic Dungeon Synth Black Metal Manifesto (Weregnome, 2022)THE FALL - Jerusalem (live Edinburgh 1988) - I Am Pure As Oranj (NMC Music, 2000)MERLE HAZARD WITH ALISON BROWN - (Gimme Some Of That) Ol' Atonal Music - (You Tube, 2019)THE LA DRIVERS UNION POR POR GROUP - Otsokobila -Por Por: Honk Horn Music Of Ghana (Smithsonian Folkways, 2007)ODIA - At the Edge of the Stones - Adventures of Odio (Afrobotic Musicology, 2022)DEREK BAILEY - 5 - Domestic Jungle (Scatter, 2022)ORGAN OF CORTI - Helix - Auris (New Forces, 2022)LORIS CERICOLA - Planet 23 - Metaphysical Graffiti (Artetreta, 2022)KEVIN AYERS AND THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD - We Did It Again (live Holland 1970) - Colours of the DayDON BRADSHAW-LEATHER - Distance Between Us Part 1 (Excerpt) - Distance Between Us (1972, re: Cold Spring, 2022)IANNIS XENAKIS - Polytope de Cluny (1972) - Electroacoustic Works Box (Karlrecords, 2022)

On the first episode of the Infectious Disease Puscast, Daniel and Sara bring Marc Crislip's well known Puscast back to life, and present a review of the infectious disease literature for the previous two weeks, 4/13 – 4/27/22. Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Sara Dong Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Links for this episode Rabies from an anteater (MMWR) Oral Tebipenem Pivoxil Hydrobromide in Complicated UTI (NEJM) Therapeutic monitoring of vancomycin for serious MRSA infections (IDSA) Time to retire Vancomycin for MRAS Endovascular Infections? (Op Forum Inf Dis) Impact of ID consultation on outcome of patients with enterococcal bacteremia (Op Forum Inf Dis) Effect of Gram Stain–Guided Initial Antibiotic Therapy on Clinical Response in Patients With Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (JAMA) Effect of Antimicrobial Prophylaxis Duration on Health Care-Associated Infections After Clean Orthopedic Surgery (JAMA) Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Seven Versus Fourteen Days of Antibiotics for Uncomplicated Gram-Negative Bloodstream Infection (Op Forum Inf Dis) Vehicle Windshield Wiper Fluid as Potential Source of Sporadic Legionnaires' Disease in Commercial Truck Drivers (MMWR) Single-Dose Liposomal Amphotericin B Treatment for Cryptococcal Meningitis (NEJM) High Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum K13 Mutations in Rwanda Is Associated With Slow Parasite Clearance After Treatment With Artemether-Lumefantrine (JID) Association of Reduced Long-Lasting Insecticidal Net Efficacy and Pyrethroid Insecticide Resistance With Overexpression of CYP6P4, CYP6P3, and CYP6Z1 in Populations of Anopheles coluzzii From Southeast Côte d'Ivoire (J Inf Dis) Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your questions for Puscast to puscast@microbe.tv

Jarida la Jumatatu Aprili 25 kwanza ni habari kwa ufupi- Ujumbe wa Umoja wa Mataifa nchini Sudan Kusini (UNMISS) umelaani vikali unyanyasaji na ukatili wa kingono ulioenea, mauaji ikiwa ni pamoja na watu kukatwa vichwa, kuchomwa moto raia wakiwa hai, na mashambulizi dhidi ya wahudumu wa misaada ya kibinadamu katika Kaunti ya Leer.   ============================ Leo ni siku ya malaria duniani mwaka huu ikibeba maudhui “Tumia ubunifu ili kupunguza mzigo wa ugonjwa wa malaria na kuokoa maisha”. Kwa mujibu wa shirika la afya la Umoja wa Mataifa WHO hakuna chombo kimoja kinachopatikana leo duniani ambacho kitatatua tatizo la malaria hivyom shirika hilo linataka uwekezaji na uvumbuzi utakaoleta mbinu mpya za kudhibiti vijidudu, uchunguzi, dawa za malaria na zana zingine ili kuharakisha kasi ya maendeleo dhidi ya kutokomeza ugonjwa huo wa malaria.  ============================= Na jukwaa la 21 la Umoja wa Mataifa la watun wa asili, leo limefungua pazia jijini New York Marekani. Jukwaa hilo linalofanyika ana kwa ana na kwa njia ya mtandao likiwaleta pamoja watu kutoka kila pembe ya dunia mwaka huu linajikita na maudhui “Watu wa asili, biashara, uhuru na msingi wa haki za binadamu wanazostahili ikiwa ni pamoja na ya ridhaa kabla na baada ya taarifa”.  MADA KWA KINA: Ikiwa ni siku ya Malaria Duniani  mada kwa kina leo inaangazia Malaria kuhusu mbinu mpya za kudhibiti ugonjwa huo ikiwememo chanjo na utafiti wa matumizi ya Toxorhynchites aina ya mbu ambaye anakula mbu wengine hususan mbu aina ya Anopheles ambaye anaeneza ugonjwa wa Malaria. Mwenyeji wako leo ni Leah Mushi.

Dokta Jovin Kitau kutoka shirika la Umoja wa Mataifa la afya ulimwenguni, WHO nchini Tanzania, ambaye ni mtaalamu wa kudhibiti na kufuatilia ugonjwa Malaria anasema Toxorhynchites wamebainika katika tafiti kuwa wanakula mbu wengine. “Tafiti zinaonesha kuwa mbu hao wanapokuwa bado ni viluilui wana uwezo wa kula viluilui wa mbu wengine akiwemo aina ya Anopheles ambayo ndio inaambukiza Malaria. Kwa hiyo hizi ni tafiti ambazo zimeweza kuthibitisha kuwa aina hii ya mbu inaweza kuongezwa kama sehemu ya mkakati ya kuzuia mbu waenezao Malaria,” amesema Dokta Kitau akihojiwa na Filbert Alexander wa kituo cha habari cha Umoja wa Mataifa, UNIC jijini Dar es salaam, nchini Tanzania. Hata hivyo mtaalamu huyo amesema “hakujawa na majaribio ya kutosha ya kuwezesha kutambua kama kweli mbinu hii ya kutumia mbu kula mbu wengine inaweza ikaleta manufaa kwenye kupunguza maambukizi  ya vimelea vya Malaria kutoka kwa mtu mmoja kwenda mwingine kupitia mbu.” Amesema ni kwa sababu ya kukosekana kwa taarifa na takwimu zinazoweza kuhusianisha moja kwa moja, “kwa maana ya kwamba kupunguza mbu waenezao Malaria kwa kutumia mbu wengine, hii inaifanya kuwa ni mbinu inayoweza kutumika lakini haijafanikiwa kutangazwa sana kama mbinu za kutumia vyandarua na kupulizia dawa za ukoko na kadhalika.”

Our guests Charles Mbogo from KEMRI and Hmooda Toto Kafy from the Federal Ministry of Health, Khartoum discuss integrated vector management (IVM) and the role that communities play in this approach to vector control. Highlights from the discussion include:  Insights into how IVM strategies have been implemented to in Sudan and Kenya to control a variety of diseases including malaria, dengue and lymphatic filariasis  The role of intersectoral collaboration between sectors including health, agriculture, environment, education, and community groups  How sustainability can be achieved when community empowerment and capacity building are prioritized, and adequate technical and logistical support is provided  Dr. Hmooda Toto Kafy, MSc, PhD  Vector Control consultant/ Advisor, Federal Ministry of Health, Khartoum - Sudan Medical entomologist and Vector control specialist with a BSc in Public and Environmental Health from University of Khartoum 1999, MSc in Biology and Control of Disease Vectors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine United Kingdom 2008 and a PhD in Medical Entomology from university Sains Malaysia 2019 by research titled: Impact of Insecticide Resistance in Anopheles arabiensis on effectiveness of malaria vector control in Sudan. since 2020, 2013 – 2019 headed integrated vector management department, FMoH, 2009 - 2015  Project officer of trial titled (Impact of Insecticide Resistance in   Anopheles arabiensis on effectiveness of malaria vector control in Sudan supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).  2009 – 2012 Head of Integrated Vector Management Unit and Deputy Manager of  National Malaria Control Programme FMoH, 2004 – 2007 head of Integrated Vector Management Unit- NMCP FMOH, 2001 – 2003 head of Vector Control Unit – NMCP FMOH and 1999 – 2001 Field supervisors, Malaria Control Programme, SMoH –Khartoum state. Since 20th May 2020 Hmooda is a Technical Support Senior Specialist; Country & Regional Support Partner Committee (CRSPC)-RBM Partnership to End Malaria, Home based with significant travel duties. Hmooda during 2000 – 2017 participated in many consultation works with WHO – EMRO and WHO – HQ such as development of vector control guidelines. Hmooda Toto Kafy published 18 papers in the subject of medical entomology and vector control in peer review journals.  Prof Charles Mbogo Chief Research Scientist, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) I am a Chief Research Scientist and a public health entomologist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. I have an interest in developing and strengthening research capacity and scientific leadership in Africa and have supervised over 20 research fellows and doctoral students.  I am currently the President of Pan African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA) where I am involved in supporting the development of a new platform for the capacity building of African entomologists. My research interests include the ecology and behaviour, and transmission dynamics of mosquitoes and other disease vectors, and development of new vector control tools. I have worked on the large-scale evaluation of insecticide-treated bednets, insecticide resistance, and integrated vector management (IVM) strategies especially community-based vector control approaches.  http://www.kemri-wellcome.org/ (www.kemri-wellcome.org)  http://www.kemri.org/ (www.kemri.org)  http://www.pamca.org/ (www.pamca.org) 

Spike In Vain - E.K.Q (from Disease is Relative reissue LP on Scat) The Martha's Vineyard Ferries - After You (from SUns Out Guns Out on Ernest Jenning Record Co.) Chris Brokaw - Skating Under Glass, Living Like a King (from The Periscope Twins 2LP on 12XU) Chris Brokaw - Out My Window (on Solo Acoustic Volume Three LP on VDSQ) Stephen - Relic (Live) (from Radar of Small Dogs LP on Joyful Noise, featuring David Kilgour) The Garbage and the Flowers - Hieronymus Bosch (from The Deep Niche LP on Grapefruit) Blue - Power Socket (from Solid State LP on Flipped Out - Philly band) Korea Undok Group - Fixed Ending (from Senescence CD on Penultimate Press) The Offset: Spectacles - Dead Air (from s/t LP on Trouble In Mind) Drunk Elk - Death Disco (from s/t LP on House Rules - Australian band based in Tasmania) Venom P. Stinger - Unused (from Live LP on Anopheles - 1992, features Jim White and Mick Turner of Dirty Three.) Toy Love - Squeeze (from AK79 2LP comp on Propeller Lamont / Flying Nun) The Dead C - Three Years (from The Sun Stabbed EP - reissued on Badabing and JagJaguwar) The Velvet Underground - Ocean (from The Velvet Underground Live with Lou Reed 2LP on Phonogram) Naked on the Vague - Old Lender (from The Blood Pressure Sessions LP on Siltbreeze - Aussie duo) Astrid Oster Mortensen - Har ondt i halsen og gar til biblioteket for at lame en bog (from Contemporary Homemade Music from Sweden on Discreet) Goldblum - Fata Morgana (from Of Feathers and Bones LP on Kraak) Kali Malone - Velocity of Sleep (title track from LP on XKatedral)

The text of this podcast is from the Wikipedia article on malaria, a well-known and terrible tropical disease. For listeners to this podcast who are studying science, this will give you practice pronouncing typical scientific vocabulary. I'll repeat the paragraph three times, and then break it into sentences or shorter phrases so you can practice repeating. Excerpt from:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MalariaMalaria is caused by single-celled microorganisms of the Plasmodium group. It is spread exclusively through bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes, according to a 2014 WHO fact sheet. [WHO is the World Health Organization.] The mosquito bite introduces the parasites from the mosquito's saliva into a person's blood. The parasites travel to the liver where they mature and reproduce. Five species of Plasmodium can infect and be spread by humans. Most deaths are caused by P. falciparum, whereas P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae generally cause a milder form of malaria. The species P. knowlesi rarely causes disease in humans. Malaria is typically diagnosed by the microscopic examination of blood using blood films, or with antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests. Methods that use the polymerase chain reaction to detect the parasite's DNA have been developed, but are not widely used in areas where malaria is common due to their cost and complexity.1. Malaria is caused by single-celled microorganisms of the Plasmodium group. 2. It is spread exclusively through bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes, according to a 2014 WHO fact sheet. 3. The mosquito bite introduces the parasites from the mosquito's saliva into a person's blood. 4. The parasites travel to the liver where they mature and reproduce. 5. Five species of Plasmodium can infect and be spread by humans. 6. Most deaths are caused by P. falciparum. 7. Malaria is typically diagnosed by the microscopic examination of blood using blood films…8. or with antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests. 9. Methods that use the polymerase chain reaction to detect the parasite's DNA have been developed…10. but are not widely used in areas where malaria is common due to their cost and complexity.Intro & Outro Music: La Pompe Du Trompe by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Anopheles stephensi is one of the few malaria mosquitoes that thrives in urban areas because of its ability to find clean water to lay its eggs.  The World Health Organization raised the alarm on urban malaria transmission in 2019, urging aggressive action against Anopheles stephensi, which it described as a “major potential threat” to malaria elimination efforts in Africa. This week we investigate warnings that Africa has just months to react to the invasive Asian mosquito that scientists say could put 125 million city-dwellers across Africa at risk. Our reporter, Michael Kaloki speaks to vector experts about the challenges it poses for malaria control across the continent.  Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  Africa Science Focus, with Michael Kaloki. Do you have any comments, questions or feedback about our podcast episodes? Let us know at podcast@scidev.net

This week we talk about quinine, the R21 vaccine, and Anopheles.We also discuss mosquitoes, repellents, and the World Health Organization. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

This week Pastor Wilson talks about the problem with deepfake videos, especially in politics and criminal trials. He also talks about Corrie Ten Boom's book, “The Hiding Place”, and his Mother's friendship with Corrie Ten Boom herself. Pastor Wilson finishes things off with a look at the word anopheles. Happy plodding!   Show Notes:   Deepfake Videos and the Law: Deepfake videos are now coming into serious possibility, especially in politics and criminal trials Wilson believes that we ought not accept any kind of electronic evidence in a court of law without the burden of proof with regard to that evidence being shifted How are we supposed to know if the electronic evidence condemning someone was not tinkered with?   The Hiding Place: Written by Corrie Ten Boom Corrie Ten Boom was good friends with Pastor Wilson's Mother   Anopheles: Rendered as unprofitable Used twice in the New Testament: Titus 3:9, Heb. 7:18 This is unprofitable in the moral sense