Aedus aegypti is the ultimate pest. The small, dark female mosquito transmits deadly viruses like dengue fever, chikungunya, malaria and the Zika virus. Their eggs can last up to a year without water and they can 'travel' on planes, trains, and automobiles. That's how these insects have infested global populations. "Dengue fever has been increasing almost 30 times in the past 30 years. It's increasing all around the world and it's spreading fast," says Derric Nimmo, product development manager at Oxitec, a British biotechnology company. Currently, there is no vaccine or treatment for either Zika or dengue. The only way to fight the spread of the disease is to limit the insect population. "As scientists, we've been fighting a losing battle against mosquitoes. They kill one person every 12 seconds. There's a desperate need for new technology," says Andrew McKemey, field operations, Oxitec. British biotechnology company Oxitec has engineered male mosquitoes to pass a fatal gene on to their offspring, which kills them before they reach adulthood. When released into the environment, Oxitec's mosquitoes can, in ideal circumstances, suppress the proliferation of mosquitoes and ultimately cut down on the mosquito-borne diseases. The hope is that if the deadly male mates with wild females, the population will thin. This could potentially save hundreds of thousands of human lives. So can genetically-modified mosquitoes help eradicate dengue or malaria? On this episode of TechKnow, the team travels to London to visit Oxitec's headquarters, witnessing first hand how a genetically-modified mosquito is engineered in the lab. TechKnow also meets Anthony James, professor of microbiology at the University of California Irvine, who is genetically modifying mosquitoes to make the insects resistant to malaria - which will prevent the spread of the deadly disease. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/