A team of Greek scientists have discovered a mechanism by which mosquitoes develop resistance to insecticides. A team from the Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology under the supervision of John Vontas, with head researcher Vssilia Balabanidou, aided by other research instituters and the University of Crete have found a novel and very important insecticide resistance mechanism that mosquitoes carry. Their work improves the understanding of mosquito resistance and could facilitate the development of insecticides with greater potency, thus combatting malaria and other dangerous mosquito related diseases. Their findings were published in the Proceedings National Academy of Science (PNAS). The number of malaria related deaths worldwide amount to 500,000 annually.