A Sidewalk Discovery in Baltimore Could Help Fight One of the World's Deadliest Diseases

Malaria killed an estimated 610,000 people worldwide in 2024, according to the World Health Organization, and it spreads almost entirely through the bite of an infected mosquito. Now researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health say they may have found an unlikely weapon against it: a yeast species usually found on blueberries, sugar cane, and rice leaves.

"This particular new yeast species we think really could change the game against malaria," said Conor McMeniman, one of the study's authors at Johns Hopkins.

McMeniman says malaria has gotten harder to control in recent years. The mosquitoes that carry it, common in places like sub-Saharan Africa, are growing resistant to insecticide, and tools like bed nets and sprays don't work the way they used to. So McMeniman and his team decided to test something else: whether yeast, which is already known to attract insects, would also draw in the mosquitoes responsible for spreading malaria.

The yeast they tested, called Rhodotorula taiwanensis, wasn't exotic. It came from a Baltimore sidewalk. "What we found was that this particular species of yeast, Rhodotorula taiwanensis, had a really alluring fragrance for the African malaria mosquito," McMeniman said.

It turned out to do more than just attract the mosquitoes, though. It trapped them. "When mosquitoes landed on it, they actually got stuck, and their legs sank into this slimy, like quicksand of this yeast," McMeniman said.

Researchers now hope to turn that stickiness into a biodegradable glue that could be used in future mosquito traps. "We think that this could really provide a really cheap, safe, and effective way to control mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit," McMeniman said.