Malaria causes around 600,000 people to lose their lives every year. Now, we may be seeing that number drop precipitously. Why? Because scientists have figured out how to turn off the “spread malaria” gene in mosquitoes.

According to NPR, in order for a mosquito to spread malaria, it must first consume the Plasmodium parasite. Then, the parasite has to move to the bug’s salivary glands in order to be injected into someone or something via a bite.

However, scientists have realized that, by editing a mosquito’s genes (specifically, a single amino acid), they can stop that parasite from reaching the salivary gland — and thus, make the bug resistant to spreading malaria.

Not only that, but these mosquitoes can breed with other mosquitoes and pass this trait on, meaning that it would only be a matter of time until a sizable amount of the mosquito population is immune to malaria.

Of course, this is all still a few years away — but still, pretty exciting!