Scientists work to rewire mosquito brains

A team of researchers at the University of Washington have been working for over a year and half to learn how to mislead mosquitoes. Jay Parrish and Jeff Riffell, the biologists involved in the study, studied the brains of the bloodsucking insects, focusing on their sense of smell, or the olfactory system.

According to Riffell, studying the sense of smell is important to understanding mosquito behaviors. “Chemical communication is the oldest sensory system and underlies nearly every critical ecological and evolutionary interaction,” he said.

Previously is has been found that mosquitoes use their sense of smell to find their prey. Studies have deduced that human blood in particular smells delicious to the sometime dangerous insects. Riffell and Parrish focused their research on trying to find which of the more than 300 body odors released by man mosquitoes are attracted to. Though the task seemed daunting, finding what attracts mosquitoes to humans would have major implications in fighting diseases caused by the insects.
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