Biologist Malcom Fraser, Jr. has been awarded $2.5 million from a $450 million commitment by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund “deliverable technologies” to counter health issues that ravage Third World populations

Fraser and his laboratory colleagues at Galvin Life Science Center have identified a way to stop the cycle in which dengue fever is transmitted. Dengue is transmitted to humans through the bite of  Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with the virus. 

Dengue fever usually starts with a high fever and chills and may include headaches, backache and muscle and joint pain. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a potentially deadly disease characterized by a high fever and may be accompanied by loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and nose or gum bleeding. The disease infects up to 100 million people annually.   
    
“Since there is no vaccine available for this virus, current control methods rely on relatively ineffective insecticide applications to eliminate vector populations in endemic areas,” Fraser said.

An important component of this work is that the biotechnological strategy is safe in terms of having no impact on the natural world.