Discover Magazine Ranks Malaria Study Top Story of 2011

Discover Magazine, a U.S. monthly publication that focuses on science topics, has ranked a recent breakthrough in malaria research as #13 in its listing of the top 100 science stories of 2011. The highlighted study, originally published in a May 2011 edition of Science, identified a bacterium present in certain mosquitoes that stops the development of the parasite that causes malaria.

Led by George Dimopoulos, PhD, associate professor at the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, the discovery presents new possibilities in the fight against malaria. If scientists can increase the presence of the bacterium in more mosquitoes, it could be a major step forward in decreasing incidents of the disease in humans.

“It would be like a probiotic for the mosquito,” Dimopoulos told Discover Magazine.

For more information, please read the Bloomberg School’s press release on the study.

Media contact: Tim Parsons, director of Public Affairs, at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.