A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests that a specialized area of the mosquito brain mixes tastes with smells to create unique and preferred flavors. The findings advance the possibility, they say, of identifying a substance that makes “human flavor” repulsive to the malaria-bearing species of mosquitoes, so instead of feasting on us, they keep the disease to themselves, potentially saving an estimated 450,000 lives a year worldwide.

“All mosquitoes, including the one that transmits malaria, use their sense of smell to find a host for a blood meal. Our goal is to let the mosquitoes tell us what smells they find repulsive and use those to keep them from biting us,” says neuroscientist Christopher Potter.

He adds that it is likely that insect repellents identified using malaria-bearing mosquitoes as a guide might also work against mosquitoes carrying Zika virus.

This work was supported by grants from the Johns Hopkins Medicine Discovery Fund, the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.