Deep in the bowels of Imperial College London’s main campus is a facility known as the insectary. The journey to it, via basement corridors and an entrance that sounds an alarm upon opening, feels like something out of a horror film.
Beyond two sets of double doors lies the reason for the security: thousands of the Anopheles mosquito that has long been humanity’s deadliest animal threat. The insects in these temperature-controlled chambers are central to pioneering efforts to use genetic engineering to stop them passing on life-threatening malaria.
Federica Bernardini, a research associate, places her hand close to the white mesh sides of a box housing the biting bugs. “I am not going to put it there for long,” she says, quickly pulling back from the tiny creatures as they start to home in on her.