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Team:Queens Canada/Project
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WE ARE TEAM
iGEM | QUEEN'S
Using foot odour in the fight against malaria
The drone of the mosquito is a common sound. On camping trips it serves as a herald of itchy swells and signals that it is indeed time to break out the bug spray. In many parts of the world however, this sound means something completely different. It signals the presence of a vector for diseases such as malaria, west nile and dengue fever. Mosquitoes are responsible for the widespread of these sicknesses, resulting in 219 million cases of malaria in 2010 alone, 660,000 of which resulted in deaths.
To defend against malaria, we've devised a solution in two parts.
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Repel.
First, we plan to eliminate foot odor with engineered bacteria and replace it with natural mosquito repellants. This will make it more difficult for mosquitoes to find their hosts, without the risk of the insects developing resistance.-
Attract.
Second, we intend to devise a mosquito trap where bacteria will synthesize the chemicals found in foot and body odour. Once the mosquitoes are trapped, we aim to resolve further disease by infecting the mosquitoes to sterilize, control, or destroy the vectors.
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