As the center of IGEM 2016 team Pasteur, they chose arboviruses. These are mosquito-borne viruses which often cause severe diseases in humans. These viruses are spreading at an alarming rate on a global scale due to mosquitoes, their vectors. Currently, the most common method of fighting against the dissemination of the vectors and the viruses are insecticides, which haven proven to be extremely damaging to the environment. In addition to that, mosquitoes tend to develop resistance against these insecticides, which diminishes their efficiency even more. So the team developped a diagnostic patch, that is biosilica-based and allows a quick detection of viruses in mosquitoes, by first depositing a mosquito lysate, produced by a trap, onto the patch. This system is quick and easy to use by local administrations and allows them to create a detailed real-time mapping of the territories populated with infected mosquitoes.

Project description