How a vaccine made of mosquito spit could help stop the next epidemic

A lab technician, Nhek Sreynik works dissecting mosquitoes, in a lab at Kompong Speu Province, in Cambodia, June 11, 2020.Building on the work of colleagues and other scientists, Manning, a clinical researcher for the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believed she could use pieces of mosquito saliva protein to build a universal vaccine.The vaccine, if it pans out, would protect against all of the pathogens the insects inject into humans - malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever, West Nile, Mayaro viruses and anything else that may emerge. (Reuters/Chantha Lach)

Five years ago, in an office complex with a giant sculpture of a mosquito just northwest of Phnom Penh, Jessica Manning struck on a novel idea. Rather than spend more years in what felt like a futile search for a malaria vaccine, she would take on all mosquito-borne pathogens at once.

Building on the work of colleagues and other scientists, Manning, a clinical researcher for the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believed she could use pieces of mosquito saliva protein to build a universal vaccine.

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