Flying syringe is a phrase that is used to refer to proposed, but not yet created,

genetically modified Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of Genetic engineering techniques, technologies used to change the gene ...

mosquitoes Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "litt ...

that inject

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity The adaptive immune system, also known as the acquired immune system, is a subsystem of the immune system that is composed of specialized, systemic cells and pro ...

into

people A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

when they bite them.

History

In the 1990s, Bob Sinden of Imperial College, London, and

Julian Crampton Julian M. Crampton (1 November 1952 – 26 June 2019) was a British biologist and academic. From 2005 to 2015, he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brighton. Early life and education Crampton was born on 1 November 1952. He graduated from ...

of the University of Liverpool, developed this idea and filled three related patents between 1997 and 2003. In 2008, the

Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

awarded $100,000 to Hiroyuki Matsuoka of

Jichi Medical University is a private university in Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan, established in 1972. In 2008 the Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an Americ ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to do research on them, with a condition that any discoveries that were funded by the grant must be made available at affordable prices in the

developing world A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. If Matsuoka proves that his idea has merit, he will be eligible for an additional $1 million of funding. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' referred to flying syringes as a "bold idea".Flying Syringes and Other Bold Ideas
''The Washington Post'', October 23, 2008

References

Vaccination Hypothetical technology Culicidae {{treatment-stub

History

See also

References