Anders Hakansson of the University of Buffalo in the U.S. has identified a protein from human breast milk (Human Alpha Lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumor cell, or HAMLET), that kills respiratory tract bacteria. Hakansson will attempt to understand the mechanism by which HAMLET binds to and kills pheumococci without the bacteria developing resistance.

CO2 present in exhaled air is used by Anopheles mosquitoes to find their human hosts. Anandasankar Ray of University of California-Riverside plans to identify odors that inhibit the mosquito's CO2- sensitive olfactory neurons, and design long-distance repellents that block the ability of mosquitoes to detect humans and protect large areas.

Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the U.S. proposes to modify bacteria that naturally inhabit the mosquito midgut to secrete proteins that interfere with the development of the malaria parasite in the mosquito that is necessary for malaria transmission.

When malaria parasites infect different human cells, including liver and red blood cells, it is thought that microRNAs are important developmental cues that facilitate specific events in the parasite life cycle. Jen-Tsan Chi of Duke Medical Center in the U.S. will test whether expressing liver-specific microRNAs within red blood cells will trick the parasite into undergoing liver-stage development, leading to its death.