Crisp Genes

Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Mosquitoes
J. Mckenna, The Simple Science, 2022.

Imagine we had the power to use genetic technologies to stop one of humanity’s most dangerous predators. What is that predator? Sharks? Crocodiles? Snakes? Think far, far smaller. It is in fact, the mosquito.Mosquitos cause all sorts of nasty diseases like the Zika Virus, Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, and malaria. While nobody really wants to contract any of those diseases, and they’ll all make you pretty miserable, they’re nothing compared to the frankly hellacious malaria being one of the single biggest killers of humans in history. Well, plot twist, we actually do have the technology and it comes in the form of some genetic machinery discovered in bacteria: CRISPR-Cas9 (or CRISPR for short).