• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Malaria Parasite Defense

Malaria Parasite Defense

June 3, 2013
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/130603_sciup_malaria.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

The key to malaria’s free ride. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

The malaria parasite relies on mosquitoes to carry it. Which means it needs to hide from the mosquito’s immune system. Now, National Institutes of Health biochemist Carolina Barillas-Mury and her colleagues have found a crucial gene involved. It makes a protein called Pfs47, which keeps the mosquito’s immune system from detecting the parasite.

CAROLINA BARILLAS-MURY (National Institutes of Health):

And what we found is that the alarm system that tells the mosquito that an infection has happened, that information doesn’t get through. And so the mosquito allows the parasite to infect without putting any resistance.

HIRSHON:
She says the gene comes in several varieties, each of which makes a different protein that works on a particular type of mosquito. If this protein could be disrupted – for instance, by introducing an antibody into the mosquito population – it could make malaria much harder to spread to humans. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the Science Society.

An Anopheles mosquito, vector of malaria. (Centers for Disease Control)

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Medicine & Health, Microbiology
Previous Post:Podcast for 31 May 2013
Next Post:Obesity & Gut Bacteria

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Cat Video
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • NASA
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Image of computer screen depicting an orange cat with a variety of alphanumeric scientific data superimposed on the the screen.
Spotted skunk performing handstand to threaten predators

Copyright © 2025 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos