School of Infection & Immunity

Steven Sinkins, Professor in Microbiology and Tropical Medicine at our Centre for Virus Research (CVR), has been awarded almost £3million by Open Philanthropy to continue his pioneering mosquito symbiont work.

Comprised of two separate grants, the funding will enable Professor Sinkins and his team to conduct potentially life-saving research into the naturally occurring malaria transmission-blocking microbe Microsporidia MB, discovered recently in wild populations of Anopheles mosquitoes in Kenya.

It will, via the ANTI-VeC Network, also support research groups in sub-Saharan Africa to carry out surveys on this microsporidian, providing an improved picture of its distribution.

Malaria kills around 400,000 people each year, imposing a huge burden on Africa, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently stressed the need to continue the efforts against malaria despite the necessary focus on COVID-19.

WHO also warned that deaths from malaria could rise significantly across sub-Saharan Africa if work to prevent the disease is disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak.

In May this year, Dr Jeremy Herren, Professor Sinkins and colleagues published a paper in Nature Communications reporting the discovery of Microsporidia MB.

By studying malaria mosquitoes in their natural environments, mainly at icipe’s Thomas Odhiambo Campus on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya, the research team found that mosquitos carrying Microsporidia MB did not harbour malaria parasites in nature, or in experimental infections in the lab.

The researchers also showed that Microsporidia MB is passed from female mosquitoes to their offspring at high rates, and does not kill or cause obvious harm to the mosquito.

Professor Sinkins said: “I am delighted that Open Philanthropy has generously awarded us this major funding.

"We hope to build on our research using Wolbachia symbionts to control dengue virus to help develop comparable approaches for malaria control. Microsporidia MB is a very promising new tool.”

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Enquiries: ali.howard@glasgow.ac.uk or elizabeth.mcmeekin@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 6557 or 0141 330 4831

First published: 24 November 2020