As scientists scramble to get a Zika virus vaccine into human trials by the end of the summer, a team of researchers is working on the first-ever vaccine to prevent another insect-borne disease – Leishmaniasis – from gaining a similar foothold in the Americas.
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection passed on through the bite of a sand fly. Using breakthrough CRISPR-cas9 gene editing technology, the researchers – hailing from Japan, Brazil, Canada and the United States – have altered the parasite’s DNA to create a live-attenuated vaccine. If approved, the vaccine will be the first ever to combat a parasite.
