Asaia: Preventing Malaria
Department
Biological Sciences
Major
Biological Sciences
Research Advisor
Westenberg, David J.
Advisor's Department
Biological Sciences
Funding Source
iGEM
Abstract
Malaria is a disease that affects between 300 and 500 million people a year with over 1 million cases resulting in death. Efforts to prevent the spread of the disease find Asaia to have properties that make it a candidate for preventing the spread of Malaria because it can thrive in the midgut of mosquitos and also move horizontally and vertically through mosquito populations. Asaia has been transformed to contain an immunotoxin that will prevent the Plasmodium falciparum from being able to spread through the mosquitos by stopping it from being able to move through the wall of the mosquitos’ midgut. Therefore, it cannot move to the mosquitos’ salivary glands. The immunotoxin, however, has not been tested in mosquitos nor has the transformed bacteria been implemented in a mosquito. If the transformed bacteria will thrive in E. coli, then, if implemented into a mosquito, it will prevent plasmodium from spreading.
Biography
Tavia is a freshman at Missouri S&T. This is her first experience with research, but she is very excited to see where it will take her. She is currently studying Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Microbiology, and plans on going to medical school; she would like to go into preventative medicine. She is also studying French and hopes to study abroad someday as well as teach English in Southern France. Hopefully, the experience gained through her undergraduate research will help her to achieve these goals.
Research Category
Research Proposals
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Document Type
Poster
Award
Research proposal poster session, First place
Location
Upper Atrium/Hallway
Presentation Date
10 Apr 2012, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Asaia: Preventing Malaria
Upper Atrium/Hallway
Malaria is a disease that affects between 300 and 500 million people a year with over 1 million cases resulting in death. Efforts to prevent the spread of the disease find Asaia to have properties that make it a candidate for preventing the spread of Malaria because it can thrive in the midgut of mosquitos and also move horizontally and vertically through mosquito populations. Asaia has been transformed to contain an immunotoxin that will prevent the Plasmodium falciparum from being able to spread through the mosquitos by stopping it from being able to move through the wall of the mosquitos’ midgut. Therefore, it cannot move to the mosquitos’ salivary glands. The immunotoxin, however, has not been tested in mosquitos nor has the transformed bacteria been implemented in a mosquito. If the transformed bacteria will thrive in E. coli, then, if implemented into a mosquito, it will prevent plasmodium from spreading.
