Playing God with mosquitoes? We humans have loftier aims.
Playing God with mosquitoes? We humans have loftier aims.
Tags: Ethics, Gene drivePugh, J, The Conversation, 2015.
In a startling development in “gene-drive” technology, a team of researchers at the University of California has succeeded in creating genetically modified mosquitoes incapable of spreading the malaria parasite to humans, and which could potentially spread this trait rapidly throughout mosquito populations in the wild.; ; This success has the potential to be translated into a huge global health benefit. Although global malarial deaths have been in decline over the past decade or so, the WHO estimates that malaria has been responsible for over 400,000 deaths this year alone.