This has been coming for quite a while and is a welcome development. Now to the tricky issue of when they are released into the broader population.

Can Prof James modify them so they don't make that annoying whining noise when they're flying? :-)

As much as I hate mosquitoes, wouldn't this remove one of the largest food supplies of bats?

I am not a biology major but think I have a layman's understanding of the "birds and the bees" or in this case mosquitoes. How is it that starving the females does not reduce or eradicate the population? The males don't suck blood so they can't even bring the girls takeout. What do the males eat anyway?

If this is successful, it's Nobel Prize worthy...

MintHenryJ, mosquitoes feed on nectar. Females only need a blood meal to produce eggs.

Releasing GMO organisms into the environment could be extremely risky. In Maine they controlled mosquitoes naturally by releasing drangonflies (mosquito hawks).

Wouldn't it make more since to fix the protein deficiency that requires female mosquitoes to suck blood to lay eggs.

Of course dramatically reduce the mosquito population and everything that relies on eating them will die off too... so fewer birds, amphibians.. and then those that eat those species will have issues...
And if there are other unintended consequences of genetic engineering we might get really good at spreading around a mutated malaria that is worse...
Bad idea as much as I'd like to reduce being bitten by the things or have less malaria in the world.

THIS WILL NOT DECREASE THE MOSQUITO POPULATION. Here is the explanation as to why:
Normally the males are wingless, and the females fly. Here they are swapping which one has the wings. Just as many males will now fly, as females that they are replacing. But the males do not suck blood. So those males will not be transmitting any disease, regardless. The females will still suck blood, but have the antibodies to kill the malaria, but since they can't fly it isn't a huge help. However, since the males can fly, they can go mate with the non-gmo females that CAN fly, and thus pass on either the trait that swaps who has the wings AND/OR makes them have antibodies, OR BOTH. So even with genetic switching, both traits would be useful. We NEED mosquitos out there in the environment because stuff lives off of them, but it the ones flying around didn't bite people, then it wouldn't matter if there were lots of them. This way we would be able to have lots of mosquitos, and far less Malaria. It would also tip the scales fairly quickly that the males are able to fly to the females because then the genetically altered males will have a higher rate of mating than the non-flying males.
This is genius.