News:

March 2009 - The Bulletin of the World Health Organization is an international journal of public health with a special focus on developing countries. An article in the March 2009 edition, Mosquito Wars (Volume 87, Number 3, March 2009, 161-244), discusses the latest advances in a vector control strategy involving the release of male aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying a dominant lethal gene that can mate with wild female mosquitoes but not produce viable offspring. This technology was developed by Luke Alphey and colleagues at Oxitec Ltd to suppress aedes aegypti mosquito populations resulting in the prevention of dengue virus transmission.
(URL: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/3/09-020309.pdf)

January 1, 2009 - Old mosquitoes usually spread disease, so Australian researchers figured out a way to make the pests die younger - naturally, not poisoned. Scientists have been racing to genetically engineer mosquitoes to become resistant to diseases like malaria and dengue fever that plague millions around the world, as an alternative to mass spraying of insecticides. A new report Friday suggested a potentially less complicated approach: Breeding mosquitoes to carry an insect parasite that causes earlier death.
(URL: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Health/wireStory?id=6563126

November, 2008 - The McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health published an article proposing that African innovation and in particular African life sciences innovation could and should become a prime driver for health and economic development on the continent. They consider a model to catalyze life sciences innovation and commercialization in Africa through convergence innovation which overcomes the problem of missing links between science, business, and capital and provides a specific focus on product development. The paper was presented at the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health in Bamako, Mali from November 17th to 19th. (Peter A Singer and Abdallah S Daar with Sara Al-Bader, Ronak Shah, Ken Simiyu, Ryan E Wiley, Pamela Kanellis, Menaka Pulandiran and Marilyn Heymann, Commercializing African health research: building life science convergence platforms, Global Forum Update on Research for Health Volume 5)
(URL: http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MRCPLEP/209acfcbc1/51a896d397/d34d9125d3)

October 27, 2008 - The final version of the Environmental Impact Statement on the "Use of Genetically Engineered Fruit Fly and Pink Bollworm in APHIS Plant Pest Control Programs" has been posted on the APHIS web site. This is a hallmark regulatory document for insect transgenesis in the US. 
(URL: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/ea/geneng.shtml)

September 5, 2008 - ' Frame that gene' is a commentary published in Embo Reports on the issues and challenges of effective communication of genetics with the general public. (Frame that gene. A tool for analysing and classifying the communication of genetics to the public. Carver R, Waldahl R, Breivik J., EMBO Rep. 2008 Oct;9(10):943-7. Epub 2008 Sep 5)
(URL: http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v9/n10/pdf/embor2008176.pdf

November 29, 2007 - The World Economic Forum announced Oxitec Ltd. as one of 39 companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2008 - The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

May 2007 - Work from the lab of project researcher Dr. Laura Harrington demonstrates the role of mosquito age, body size, and strain on sperm capacity and potential reproductive fitness.  (Ponlawat A. and Harrington L.C.  Age and body size influence male sperm capacity of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti [Diptera: Culicidae]. J Med Entomol. 2007 May;44(3):422-6.) - This is the first report demonstrating an age-dependent relationship in the number of sperm produced by Ae. aegypti males and suggests that larger and older virgin Ae. aegypti have the greatest reproductive potential.  Further investigations of mosquito mating biology will be especially important for genetic control programs that require an understanding of mosquito reproductive success.

May 18, 2007 - Biologist David Severson helps map yellow fever/dengue mosquito genome (William G. Gilroy -source University of Notre Dame News and Information, Newswire ) -the genome sequence of Aedes aegypti mosquito has been published by scientists led by Vishvanath Nene at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and David Severson at the University of Notre Dame.

May 18, 2007 - Blueprint Proposed for Wiping Out Disease-bearing Mosquitoes - (Ben Pimentel - Stanford Knowledgebase) - Releasing genetically modified male mosquitoes could eliminate the danger of dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases within a year, according to new research.

April 1, 2007 - Lethal type of dengue fever hits Mexico (The Seattle Times - -By Mark Stevenson - The Associated Press)

June 30, 2006 - Travel-Associated Dengue - United States, 2005 (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 55 No 25)

March 26, 2006 - Academy adds UCI chemist, biologist—Dr. James is inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. (By Gary Robbins —The Orange County Register)

Announcement of the 14 Grand Challenges in Global Health (Science 17 October 2003: Vol. 302. no. 5644, pp. 398 - 399)

Archived News Articles

Events:

Meetings:

November 18-22, 2009 - American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's 58th Annual Meeting at the Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, DC, USA

Updated 3/02/09