Malaria kills a child in Africa once every minute. There were 584,000 deaths in 2013.

Mosquitoes spread the disease through their bite. If there’s no bite, there’s no disease transmission.

Professors Christina Holzapfel and William Bradshaw at the University of Oregon are attempting to stop mosquitoes from biting. If successful, they could stop the spread of malaria all around the world.

“It would relieve so much pain,” Holzapfel said.

At the center of their research is a simple observation: there is a certain species of mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii, that bites in one geographic area but not in another. This is the only species that varies in this way. Wyeomyia smithii lives in the eastern United States, from Northern Florida to Canada.

South of North Carolina, female mosquitoes take blood for food. North of the state though, that species of mosquito are obligate non-biters, meaning they do not need blood meals.

The goal of Holzapfel and Bradshaw’s research is to isolate the gene in the northern mosquitoes responsible for their non-biting nature.

Wyeomyia smithii has roughly 28,000 genes. The biters and non-biters differ in about 3,000. They are collaborating with several other universities around the world in the process of analyzing each individual gene and eliminating the ones not responsible. Once they get the number down to under 100, they will hand the project over to another team. That team will use a technique called RNAi, which will interfere with the expression of individual genes to determine the one responsible.

Once the culprit gene is identified, another team will create a non-toxic gene inhibitor. This will basically turn off biting in mosquitoes that blood feed.

Bradshaw and Holzapfel’s research has implications at home as well as overseas. Although three quarters of mosquitoes live in warmer, tropic climates, mosquitoes are moving farther north. Because temperatures have been steadily rising over the past few decades, mosquitoes are moving to maintain their same climate. Willamette Valley has a history of malaria. Two hundred years ago the area was referred to as “The Valley of Death” because of how rampant the disease was.

The lab is dedicated to training student research scientists. They believe the earlier students have access to practical research, the earlier they can decide if they wish to pursue that career. “They get to see the dragon,” said Bradshaw. “They either pick up a sword or do something else.”

Eight undergraduates work at the lab. Caitlin Nichols, a math major with a pre-med focus at the UO, is one.

She has bred several generations of mosquitoes, crossing northern and southern types of Wyeomyia smithii. She then hangs a rat in the cage to test which combinations are biters. All of the research is conducted in controlled environment rooms, which allow the researchers to precisely control variables like humidity and day length. Each one of these rooms costs roughly $1,000,000.

Nichols joined the lab because she is fascinated with the health implications of the research. She says the lab lets her focus her research toward her area of study.

“They have been so supportive,” Nichols said. Nichols is graduating, and she had her final day at the lab last week.

Bradshaw and Holzapfel have been doing research with mosquitoes since they were studying at Harvard in the 1970s. Their research has touched on areas such as habitat study and climate change. They believe their lives of constant research are similar to being a student. They’re always learning something new and creating new knowledge.

“Research is who we are,” said Holzapfel.