Gene Drive in the News

A curated collection of articles from the popular press

The EU not ready for the release of Gene drive organisms into the environment.

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Pensoft Publishers,  ScienceDaily,  2020-05-07 15:59:25.
In their study, published in the open-access journal BioRisk, an international group of scientists led by Marion Dolezel from the Environment Agency Austria, discuss the potential risks and impacts on the environment.

Mutant mosquitoes one step closer to release in Florida, Texas this summer. Why?

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K. Camero,  The Charlotte Observer,  2020-05-07 15:45:03.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved an experimental use permit for the British biotech company Oxitec to test the modified mosquitoes in the U.S. for the first time, according to a statement from the agency

US EPA OKs release of GM mosquitoes

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A. Beer,  Agrow Agribusiness,  2020-05-06 15:57:35.
he US EPA has granted an experimental use permit to US synthetic biology company Intrexon’s UK subsidiary, Oxitec, to test its genetically modified OX5034 Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Genetically Engineered Male Mosquitos to be Released in Florida and Other Parts of US to Curb Zika and Dengue Spread

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Staff Reporter,  The Science Times,  2020-05-06 15:47:02.
The Environmental Protection Agency has recently approved a new and controversial field test aimed at reducing their population.

Swarms of genetically modified mosquitoes could soon be descending on Florida

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A. J. Dellinger,  Mic,  2020-05-06 15:42:53.
Mosquitoes are a pain in the ass, so much so that the Environmental Protection Agency has approved a new and controversial field test aimed at curbing their population.

EPA Grants First Permit to Test Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

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Adam Allington,  Bloomberg Law,  2020-05-01 14:05:51.
British biotech company Oxitec Ltd was granted an experimental use permit to release a genetically engineered type of the mosquito species Aedes aegypti, which is a known vector of Zika virus and viruses that cause yellow fever and dengue fever, the Environmental Protection Agency office of Chemical Safety and Pollution announced.

EFSA discusses risk assessment of gene drives

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C. Then,  Testbiotech,  2020-04-30 16:03:36.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) carried out a public consultation on guidance for the risk assessment of so-called gene drives at the request of the EU Commission. At the same time, a new Testbiotech scientific paper was accepted after peer review. The paper shows that the EFSA concept is insufficient. To control the risks of gene drives, ‘cut-off criteria’ need to be defined to prevent the uncontrolled spread of genetically engineered organisms.

GeneTip project results published in full

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C. Then,  Testbiotech,  2020-04-27 16:01:59.
The GeneTip research project was a joint enterprise carried out from 2017 until 2019 by the Universities of Bremen and Vechta, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna and Testbiotech, Munich. The researchers focused on risks associated with the spread of newly designed genetically engineered organisms into the environment. In particular, the project examined plants and animals with a so-called gene drive. The results have now been published in full by the Springer Publishing Company in a book titled “Gene Drives at Tipping Points“ (open access).

Pest control with genetically modified insects

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myScience,  myScience,  2020-04-21 17:18:07.
To control pests without pesticides, genetically modified organisms of the same species could be used. The latter carry a gene that is passed on with above-average frequency via sexual reproduction. This gene possesses traits that directly weaken the pest, or prevent pathogens from being transmitted. But how can the environmental impact of such gene-drive elements be recorded and assessed? Experts from Agroscope have authored a concept study on this topic.

Can we kill the dreaded mosquito? Do we even want to?

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Stacey McKenna,  Sierra,  2020-04-19 15:40:08.
As a major vector for disease, the mosquito has harmed more human beings than just about any other animal, and a changing climate is only boosting those numbers. As the range of disease-carrying species of mosquitoes expands, so does their ability to transmit the parasites and viruses that result in malaria, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever, West Nile, and dengue fever. In 2018, the continental United States saw a 25 percent increase in severe, neuroinvasive cases of West Nile virus compared with a decade earlier. And over the past three decades, the CDC reports, the worldwide incidence of dengue fever has risen 30-fold.

Gene drives as a gene modification tool. A scientific overview.

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Ashan Ali,  TechnologyTimes,  2020-04-18 15:46:03.
We have heard a lot of genes and chromosomes. But we have not heard about gene drives. In this article, we are going to get an overview of gene drives. Gene Drive is basically a genetic engineering technique that helps in the accumulation and propagation of a particular set of traits throughout the population. Gene drives basically increase the chances of certain traits to pass on to the next generations. Gene Drives arise through various mechanisms. Gene-editing techniques like CRISPR have enabled the researchers to construct gene drives. Gene drives actually are an effective method of modifying specific populations and entire species.

Controversial ‘gene drive’ could disarm deadly wheat pathogen

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Elizabeth Pennisi,  Science,  2020-04-17 17:12:53.
The Fusarium fungus is the bane of every wheat farmer’s existence. Causing wheat scab—also known as head blight—it decimates harvests and contaminates grains with a toxin harmful to people and animals. Now, Australian researchers have come up with a new strategy to combat Fusarium graminearum, the most notorious wheat scab pathogen. In the lab, they have used a genome-altering technology called “gene drive” to get rid of the fungal genes that make this pest so toxic.

Genetic variation not an obstacle to gene drive strategy to control mosquitoes

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University of California Davis,  ScienceDaily,  2020-04-16 15:42:49.
New research from entomologists at UC Davis clears a potential obstacle to using CRISPR-Cas9 "gene drive" technology to control mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever and Zika.

Gene editing and the war against malaria

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E. Bier and E. Sobber,  American Scientist,  102:162. 2020-04-16 15:34:38.
Malaria is a devastating disease transmitted from person to person by mosquitoes. It kills more than 400,000 people per year, more than half of those deaths being children 5 years old or younger. CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a new gene-editing technology that acts like a pair of molecular scissors: It is used to “cut and paste” DNA sequences to alter gene function. In “Gene Editing and the War Against Malaria” (pages 162–169), Ethan Bier and Elliott Sober describe how biologists can now alter genes in a malaria-transmitting mosquito population by engineering a CRISPR gene drive, which mimics a natural evolutionary process. With this tool, a new gene can be inserted into the genome so that the alteration is rapidly passed down to successive sexually reproducing generations. Two gene-drive strategies have been found feasible: The first drives a local malaria-transmitting population to extinction; the second renders mosquitoes unable to transmit malaria, which breaks the malaria transmission cycle.

Gene editing could fight malaria by causing only male mosquitos to be born

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L. Dormehl,  Digital Trends,  2020-04-14 18:01:16.
What’s the theoretically easiest way to ensure that a population of mosquitos is not able to sustain itself through breeding? Make sure that there aren’t enough females, of course. That’s the exploratory approach being pioneered by researchers at the U.K.’s Imperial College London, who have developed a way of distorting the sex ratio in species of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes to ensure that offspring are predominantly male. Over a relatively short period of time, this causes the population of mosquitos to collapse — and, potentially, halts one of the main vectors for spreading diseases like malaria as a result.

Gene drives could stop the world’s oldest problems

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Chloe Willianms,  Inverse,  2020-04-01 15:31:23.
Kevin Esvelt worries more than the average scientist. It’s a consequence of having invented a technology powerful enough to alter an entire species. In 2013, Esvelt came up with the concept of CRISPR-based gene drive. The technology uses CRISPR, a gene editing tool, to hack the laws of inheritance: It allows scientists to genetically modify a few individuals that then spread a modified gene throughout an entire population, and eventually, every population around the world.

‘Gene Drive’ to curb malaria raises ethical questions as well

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Gyanedra Nath Mitra,  The Pioneer,  2020-03-25 15:23:14.
A new technology ‘Gene Drive’ for mosquito control is currently confined to the laboratory since it raises an ethical question, if such a technology could in future be misused to the detriment of humanity.

Should the humans be allowed to genetically modify insects?

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Olivia Abbe,  NYK Daily,  2020-03-24 15:27:57.
Genetic engineering, also called Genetic modification or Genetic manipulation, is the direct manipulation of an organism’s genes using biotechnology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms. New DNA is obtained by either isolating and copying the genetic material of interest using recombinant DNA methods or by artificially synthesising the DNA.

The risks of using gene drives to get rid of ‘pesky species’

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R. Lewis,  Genetic Literacy Project,  2020-03-13 19:45:32.
The mammals of New Zealand have long posed a threat to native species. The Predator Free 2050 program is an effort to rid the island of these invaders – including using the tools of CRISPR-based genome editing to create a gene drive to jumpstart extinctions. It’s a very bad idea.

NZ’s great pest-free quest: can we get there?

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J. Morton,  NZ Herald,  2020-03-09 19:58:28.
The Government has unveiled how it plans to rid New Zealand of possums, rats and stoats by 2050 – but there's no specific mention of contentious gene-editing technology that many scientists say will be needed. The Predator Free 2050 strategy, being formally launched this morning by Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage, sets out a basic structure for the ambitious mission, while an accompanying action plan focuses on work for the next five years. The 2050 goal, first announced by the previous National-led government in 2016, forms one of New Zealand's principal efforts to turn the tide on pests killing some 25 million native birds each year. The just-released strategy focused on three steps: mobilising groups and setting up collaborations around the country; developing "new and transformational tools and techniques" that'll be required to eradicate the pests; and then applying these at scale across the countryside.

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