“The mosquitoes have an innate immune system that is quite effective at fighting against pathogens, so a large portion of pathogens will be killed by various mosquito defense molecules. However, some of the parasites will make it through, and that’s why we still have disease transmission,“ Dimopoulos said. “Our lab engineers mosquitoes to make their immune system more effective.”
One of the mosquitoes’ immune defense mechanisms is a melanization-based defense system: When the immune system detects invasive parasites, this mechanism melanizes parasites in a capsule and eliminates them. However, Plasmodium is able to utilize CTL4 to hide from this defense system.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
