May 2020    
         
         
 
     
 
     
  UChicago scientists are working diligently to understand and combat COVID-19. Read about the science, find answers to your questions about the coronavirus, and stay up-to-date with University efforts to protect the community and beyond.

The University has also launched COVID 2025: Our World in the Next 5 Years, a video series that features leading scholars discussing how the coronavirus will change our world and what steps are crucial now to shaping that future.

Meanwhile, other UChicago scientists continue their battle against an older global threat: malaria. 		 
     
 
     
     
     
  Skeeterish  
     
  With warm weather comes mosquitoes. They prefer to feast on some people more than others, causing red, itchy bumps. And those who are especially allergic to the proteins in mosquito saliva can have a severe reaction called skeeter syndrome.  
     
  But some mosquitoes are even more harmful—they carry pathogens that cause diseases like malaria, Zika virus, dengue, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. To manage the danger and worry that come with summer swarms, scientists attack the problem at the human, bug, and microbe levels.  
     
  A targeted response  
     
 
Illustration of female mosquito
 
 
     
  This illustration from the Journal of Hygiene (1901) shows a female mosquito of the genus Anopheles. There are about 430 Anopheles species, and 30–40 of those transmit human malaria. (Illustration courtesy the Wellcome Collection)  
     
 
     
 
  Causing millions of deaths each year, mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures known to humankind.  
 
       
  More than 400,000 people died of malaria around the world in 2018. There is a malaria vaccine, but over a five-year trial, it prevented only 4 in 10 cases in children who received the immunization. Scientists in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have developed a more effective vaccine that targets specific cells for a stronger immune response. How did they deliver the drug to the immune system sweet spot? By adding sugar.  
     
 
 
 
  Buzz feed  
     
 
     
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The easiest way to avoid mosquito-borne diseases is to avoid mosquito bites. The CDC tells you how.
 
     
     
     
 
     
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The Illinois Department of Public Health lists what does and doesn’t manage mosquito populations.
 
     
     
     
 
     
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Scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory explore whether they can interrupt mosquito reproduction by manipulating a mosquito parasite.
 
     
     
     
 
     
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Geneticist Thomas Wellems, PhD’80, MD’81, has spent 40 years trying to defeat malaria by investigating its drug resistance capabilities.
 
     
     
     
 
     
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Photojournalist Adam Nadel, AB’90, discusses his exhibition Malaria: Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
 
     
     
 
         
         
    Spotlight    
         
         
 
     
  Bug out bags  
     
 
Mosquito thwarted by net
 
 
     
  A poster printed by the US Government Printing Office in 1946 advises citizens to avoid malaria by sleeping under a mosquito net. (Image courtesy the US National Library of Medicine)  
     
 
     
  Up to 65 percent of American soldiers serving in the Pacific theater during World War II reportedly caught malaria. Mosquitoes posed as much a threat as enemy combatants, but they were a low priority in the face of war.  
     
  Already carrying up to 75 pounds of equipment, many soldiers dumped what they deemed useless antimalarial meds, particularly during retreat. So the US military began a public health campaign. The National Library of Medicine has a collection of posters and calendars—many objectionable by today’s standards—urging soldiers to pack their meds and nets and take precautions against the enemy mosquito.  
     
 
  In case you missed it  
     
 
Cosmic inflation: How fast is the universe expanding? Depends on whom you ask.
 
 
COVID-19: UChicago is working hard to keep you safe, healthy, and informed.
 
 
 
 
 
     
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