Thanks to a special protein produced by sea cucumbers, scientists may be on the right path to finding an effective way to combat malaria. Lectin kills off the parasites that are responsible for making the mosquito carrying them so dangerous.

The way it works is that scientists genetically fuse parts of the protein-making gene to the mosquito's. So lectin ends up killing the parasites before they can migrate to the salivary glands of the mosquito which is where the point of contact happens with humans. At this stage, it's mostly impractical because for it to be used as a truly effective method against malaria, researchers would need to introduce the modified species.

But that's never been done before, and the genetically engineered mosquitos are not able to use the sea cucumber's protein to kill 100% of all the parasites. They are on the right track, however, and hopefully it is just a matter of time before they find a way to use this method to fight the disease which is responsible for a million deaths per year.