2023 Falling Walls Prize for Science and Innovation Management
December 21 , 2023 339 days 451 0
Abdoulaye Diabate was awarded the 2023 Falling Walls Prize for Science and Innovation Management for his research work.
He developed an innovative technique that can wipe out malaria-causing female mosquitoes by altering their genes.
Malaria is generally transmitted through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes.
Under gene drive technology, female mosquitoes are prevented from producing new female offspring by releasing genetically modified male mosquitoes in the environment.
This would lead to the depletion of female mosquitoes, thus bringing down malaria causes throughout the continent.
Africa shoulders the world’s largest malaria burden, with the continent constituting 96 per cent of the total 619,000 deaths worldwide in 2021.
According to the WHO’s latest data, of those 96 per cent, 80 per cent of deaths occurred in children aged under five.