Gene Drive in the News

A curated collection of articles from the popular press

African health ministers commit to concerted action to end malaria deaths

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Felista Tarimo,  Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research,  2024-04-25 17:39:16.
On March 6, health ministers from African countries with the highest burden of malaria met in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and signed a declaration committing to the fundamental principle “that no one should die from malaria.” The Declaration for Accelerated Malaria Mortality Reduction in Africa signals a unified commitment to achieving a future free from malaria deaths on the continent. Despite advances made in the fight against the disease over the last two decades, the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region still accounts for over 90% of malaria cases and deaths worldwide. The 11 signatory countries to the document, which are classified as High burden High Impact (HBHI) countries — and include the United Republic of Tanzania, where I live and work — account alone for 70% of the global malaria burden. The declaration underscores the urgency of addressing several emerging and persistent challenges hindering progress in the fight against malaria, such as inadequate funding, growing biological threats — including insecticide and drug resistance — as well as low access to and insufficient quality of health services. It outlines a comprehensive plan built on four pillars: stronger political will, data-driven strategies, best practices in action, and multisectoral collaboration. Central to the Yaoundé Declaration is Point 6, which emphasizes the pivotal role of research and innovation in the quest to end malaria deaths. The fight against malaria requires constant adaptation, and this declaration acknowledges the importance of developing new tools and technologies specifically tailored to the high-burden African context. The focus on research and innovation aligns perfectly with our work at Transmission Zero. Our international research programme — that brings together collaborators from several institutions in Tanzania, the United Kingdom and Switzerland — is working to develop new genetic technologies which could reduce malaria transmission by disrupting mosquitoes’ ability to transmit the malaria parasite to humans. If proven safe and effective, this approach could complement existing tools to achieve the vision of a world free from malaria.

Genetically modified mosquitoes could one day end malaria

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Alexis Akwagyiram,  Semafor,  2024-04-25 17:31:43.
Abdoulaye Diabaté, a scientist from Burkina Faso, is at the vanguard of efforts to eliminate malaria by editing the genetic makeup of male mosquitoes and releasing them in the wild to prevent the reproduction of female mosquito species that transmit malaria. The technique is known as “gene drive” technology. Malaria kills more than 600,000 people every year, most of whom are children in Africa. Research by Diabaté, who heads medical entomology and parasitology at Burkina Faso’s Research Institute in Health Sciences, earned him the 2023 Falling Walls Prize for Science and Innovation Management. He spoke to Semafor Africa ahead of a Ted Talk on ending malaria. Gene drive offers great promises as a vector control tool. The fact that it is self-sustaining, meaning that a relatively small release of modified mosquitoes are able to spread within a population and induce suppression. It allows targeting a large area in a cost effective and self-sustaining manner, reaching areas that are difficult to control with conventional methods.

Group trains Nigerian journalists on “gene drives” controversies

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Tosin Omoniyi,  Premium Times,  2024-04-25 17:23:47.
The Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) held a training for Nigerian journalists on the controversies surrounding the ‘gene drives’ research organisations that allegedly target Africans as “guinea pigs.” The training, the organisers said, was aimed at equipping journalists to understand the issues and be able to report the controversies robustly. The Executive Director of RDI, Philip Jakpor, in his opening remarks, said in conceiving the training, the organisation realised that the media is key not only in keeping the public informed but also in “exposing and interrogating initiatives and innovations that are extraneous to Africans and African culture as part of its watchdog role”. Gene drive is a technology that allows a chosen set of genes to alter an animal’s biology in certain ways, such as making them produce sterile offspring. The inability to reproduce then sweeps through a population, upending the “laws of inheritance.” Specifically, the genes copy themselves exponentially from generation to generation, rapidly coming to dominate the whole population. Potentially, scientists argue that their careful use might save millions of lives by making, for instance, mosquitoes unable to transmit malaria or by eliminating the insects entirely. The possibility of a definitive solution to major infectious diseases makes a compelling case for such a technology.

Bacteria found in mosquito guts could help scientists fight dengue, Zika

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Catherine Offord,  Science,  2024-04-25 17:12:41.
A team in China probing the guts of local mosquitoes has found a potential helper in the fight against two human diseases. Researchers identified a new bacterium that disables the viruses responsible for dengue and Zika before they can establish an infection in the insects. Although early stage, the work, reported this week in Science, paves the way for studying the bacterium’s effect on disease transmission in the real world. It wouldn’t be the first time a microbe is used to thwart mosquito-borne diseases. About 15 years ago, researchers discovered that a different bacterium, Wolbachia, reduces the insects’ ability to transmit dengue, among other viruses. Following successful field trials, Wolbachia is now used to help control dengue in more than a dozen countries. But an extra weapon to help control mosquito-borne diseases is welcome—especially as the insects become resistant to current insecticides. The new study is “promising,” says Nsa Dada, a vector biologist at Arizona State University who was not involved in the work. “It’s important that we explore … new tools that can complement existing control measures.” Lacking proven treatments or widely available vaccines, dengue is the most common mosquito-borne viral disease worldwide, infecting some 400 million people each year. Although most cases are mild or asymptomatic, about one in 20 people who get sick develop severe dengue, which can be fatal.

Bacterial warriors fight mosquito-borne diseases

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Alejandra Manjarrez,  Drug Discovery News,  2024-04-16 21:12:48.
Every time a mosquito bites a person, multiple feasts take place. As in most animals, a meal provides nutrients to the mosquito as well as to the troop of bacteria that inhabits its gut. Occasionally, the mosquito may also ingest a parasite: a Plasmodium protozoan responsible for malaria in humans, or an arbovirus, which can cause dengue, chikungunya, Zika, or yellow fever. The pathogen is just along for the ride, but those first hours after being ingested are crucial for its survival. The parasite develops in the insect’s midgut lumen, and any interference during this period may hamper its future survival and transmission.  When the mosquito ingests blood, the number of bacteria in its midgut increases dramatically. “That’s easy to understand because they use the nutrients of the blood to multiply,” noted Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, a malaria researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “You have a few parasites surrounded by a huge number of bacteria.” These bacteria become promising targets for intervening in the development of parasites during their most vulnerable stages, either by competing for resources or directly attacking the threat. In the ongoing battle against mosquito-borne diseases that kill more than a million people each year, scientists like Jacobs-Lorena increasingly turn to mosquito microbiota as allies in disease prevention (1). Delving into the guts and other bacteria-inhabited parts of mosquitoes is beginning to bear fruit. The performance of these bacteria in laboratory and semi-field experiments is promising. Releasing mosquitoes armed with a virus-fighting bacterium in cities affected by dengue significantly decreased its incidence in those locations. While these interventions don’t offer a silver bullet against mosquito-borne diseases, they appear to be a game-changer in the fight against those deadly parasites.

Africa’s Champion Against Malaria, Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté on stage at TED2024

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Nelly Gachanja,  African Media Agency,  2024-04-16 21:07:37.
TED2024, a hallmark event celebrating 40 years of innovation, ingenuity, creativity, courage, and generosity, taking place in Vancouver, Canada from 15-19 April, will feature Africa’s esteemed, and leading champion against malaria, Prof. Abdoulaye Diabaté as a speaker. In his Talk, titled “How to End Malaria”, Prof. Diabaté aims to catalyse transformative change in global health. Hailing from Burkina Faso, Prof. Diabaté is Head of Medical Entomology and Parasitology at the Research Institute in Health Sciences (Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé – IRSS), in Bobo-Dioulasso. His acclaimed research work as Principal Investigator of Target Malaria Burkina Faso has earned him global recognition, including prestigious speaking engagements at Harvard University, interviews by several prestigious international and national media, including the CNN, BBC, Netflix, The New York Times, the National TV channels of Burkina Faso. Prof. Diabaté was recently honoured as one of the 10 global winners of the esteemed Falling Walls Science and Innovation Prize 2023. This recognition underscores his pioneering efforts in eradicating malaria through innovative gene drive mosquito technology, which holds the promise of being a self-sustaining and cost-effective method to reduce the population of malaria mosquitoes – offering hope to millions worldwide.

African researchers committed to ending malaria

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African Media Agency,  2024-04-02 19:38:40.
The need to encourage more young African girls to pursue careers in science cannot be overemphasized.

Biotech company implements controversial offspring-killing method to address dengue fever: ‘Will show a reduction of 20%’

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Jeremiah Budin,  The Cool Down,  2024-04-02 11:44:22.
"We can get out of this state of emergency."

Uganda and Djibouti seek Friendly mosquitoes to fight malaria

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Richard Wetaya,  Alliance for Science,  2024-04-02 11:40:33.
According to Oxitec CEO Grey Frandsen, the Friendly technology platform was ideally equipped to produce a safe, sustainable solution to manage the Anopheles stephensi mosquito vector based on years of experience creating and deploying other Oxitec solutions at scale.

Researchers reveal how a virus hijacks insect sperm: May help control disease vectors and pests

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Pennsylvania State University,  Phys.org,  2024-03-19 17:39:54.
A new study led by researchers at Penn State has uncovered how a widespread bacteria called Wolbachia and a virus that it carries can cause sterility in male insects by hijacking their sperm.

On EAC’s GMO disharmony and little-known GM mosquito research

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Gitura Mwaura,  The New Times,  2024-03-19 13:18:15.
A meeting in Dar es Salaam in November 2022 sought to chart the legal way forward for the Target Malaria and Transmission Zero Project, as the research initiative is called.

Brazil’s record dengue surge: why a vaccine campaign is unlikely to stop it

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Mariana Lenharo,  Nature,  2024-03-19 12:55:41.
A vaccine shortage and persistent sanitation problems threaten the success of the world’s first public vaccination campaign against dengue virus.

CRISPR could eradicate horrific parasite that’s killing cattle

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Kristin Houser,  Freethink,  2024-03-11 10:19:23.
Uruguay is developing a CRISPR gene drive to eradicate the New World screwworm, a parasitic fly that kills cattle in a painful, grisly fashion. Releasing it into the wild would have risks, but if it works, it could help rid South America of this horrific agricultural pest. The screwworm fly lays its eggs on living creatures — often livestock — and once they hatch, the larvae eat into the animal’s flesh for about a week, before emerging from the tunnel they created and flying away. “We know that it’s horrendously painful, because people get affected by this, and the standard of treatment is you give them morphine immediately so that surgeons can cut the things out — because it’s just that painful; it’s unbelievably agonizing,” Kevin Esvelt, a biologist at the MIT Media Lab, told the 80,000 Hours podcast in 2023. Aside from being painful, screwworm infestations of livestock are incredibly costly. In the 1950s, the US meat and dairy industries were losing an estimated $200 million per year to the pests — that’d be about $2.3 billion today. Screwworms are no longer a problem for American farmers thanks to the USDA. In 1955, it set out to eradicate the screwworm in the US by irradiating the insects’ larvae, which made adults sterile. Infertile males could then be released into infested areas to mate with females, which wouldn’t produce any offspring.

Protecting the peppers: Unlocking the potential of the sterile insect technique

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Society of Chemical Industry,  Phys.org,  2024-03-11 10:00:52.
For the first time, researchers in Canada have investigated the use of the sterile insect technique for controlling populations of the pepper weevil, Anthonomus eugenii, an economically significant crop pest in North America. The paper, published in Pest Management Science, revealed compelling findings on the use of gamma irradiation as a sterilization technique to improve the sustainability and effectiveness of pepper weevil management worldwide. The study was a collaboration between Bruce Power, Nordion Inc., the University of Guelph, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada. A. eugenii poses a significant challenge to pepper growers across much of North America, causing millions of dollars worth of crop damage annually. The beetle larvae damage the flowers and immature fruit of capsicum plants, with infestations causing yield losses of up to 90%. Managing A. eugenii populations is particularly challenging as the development of beetle larvae takes place in the protective confines of pepper fruits. Roselyne Labbe, Greenhouse Entomologist at Agriculture and Agri-Food, Canada, and corresponding author of the study, explained the challenges in identifying effective strategies to manage populations of A. eugenii. "In prior research, we found that few conventional, reduced-risk, or microbial pesticides could effectively knock down adult populations of the pepper weevil on greenhouse pepper crops."

Gene Drive Systems To Control Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes Make Headway

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Joshua Ang,  Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research,  2024-03-05 13:15:42.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are known vectors of several diseases, including dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika, which impact millions of people worldwide each year. The effectiveness of existing insecticide-based methods to control this mosquito is threatened by growing insecticide resistance, underscoring the need to develop new approaches. The advent of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has reshaped the research and development landscape of new potential vector control tools, leading researchers to explore novel approaches, such as gene drive technologies. In the past few years, gene drive technologies have gained remarkable traction, particularly for their success in controlling major malaria mosquito vectors in laboratory settings. A gene drive is able to bias its own inheritance, facilitating the spread of a specific trait through a target population. This super-Mendelian pattern of propagation makes gene drive technology an efficient and cost-effective potential new method to control mosquitoes that transmit disease.

Revolutionizing Livestock Biosecurity: Using CRISPR Technology to Combat the New World Screwworm

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Dr. Jessica Nelson,  Medriva,  2024-03-05 13:07:55.
The New World screwworm, a persistent parasite responsible for significant damage to the global livestock industry, may soon meet its match. Researchers at Uruguay's National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) have developed a gene drive using CRISPR technology to combat this destructive pest. By manipulating the reproductive process of the screwworm fly, INIA scientists aim to cause a population crash, thereby reducing the parasite's devastating impact on the livestock industry. CRISPR gene drive technology offers a potentially more efficient and powerful solution compared to previous methods, such as the sterile insect technique (SIT) used by the US. Unlike traditional techniques, CRISPR gene drives aim to spread fertility-damaging genes throughout the screwworm population, causing a significant decrease in their numbers. The process works by making female screwworms sterile. The ultimate goal is to release gene-edited male screwworm flies into the wild. These males will mate with females, passing on the gene drive and leading to a population crash of the screwworm fly. This innovative approach has shown promise in caged trials and is currently being tested further in the INIA labs.

Uruguay wants to use gene drives to eradicate devastating screwworms

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Abdullahi Tsanni,  MIT Technology Review,  2024-03-05 12:53:17.
On a warm, sunny day in Montevideo, Uruguay, the air is smogless and crisp. Inside a highly secured facility at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) are a sophisticated gene gun, giant microscopes, and tens of thousands of gene-edited flies, their bright blue wings fluttering against the walls of their small, white, netted cages. These flies—shown to me on video by an INIA veterinarian, Alejo Menchaca—are a new weapon that may soon be unleashed against an enemy that kills cattle and costs the livestock industry millions of dollars every year: the New World screwworm, a parasite common in parts of South America and the Caribbean. When a female screwworm fly attacks cattle, it lays eggs, which hatch and turn into worm-like larvae that screw down into the host animal, feeding on flesh along their way and damaging the animal’s skin. Left untreated, the animals eventually die in excruciating agony. But Menchaca and colleagues have a plan. Using the genome-editing system CRISPR, they’ve developed what’s known as a gene drive, a type of genetic element that manipulates the reproductive process to spread farther and faster than an ordinary gene. They are about to move into the next stage of caged trials in the lab, with a view to eventually using the genetic tool to decimate the screwworm fly population. In collaboration with Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, they have received a $450,000 grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the research.

Modified mosquitoes may save millions more lives in Latin America

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Marina E. Franco,  Axios,  2024-02-27 18:40:46.
A program that uses genetically engineered mosquitoes in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to reduce the prevalence of diseases that can be fatal may soon serve millions more people. Why it matters: Outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, zika and yellow fever —diseases carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito —have long hit the Americas and other tropical regions hard. Climate change has worsened the spread of these diseases, experts say, as rising temperatures favor the life cycle of the mosquitoes and their proliferation in more areas — including, increasingly, the U.S. These diseases also tend to affect impoverished regions where a lack of health care options mean mosquito bites can become deadly. Diseases such as dengue "feed on poverty and inequity, and they fuel it also," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week during an event in Brazil.

Taking the fight against disease to mosquitoes

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Gregory Devine,  Setopati,  2024-02-27 18:33:30.
In the medium term it's likely that suppression strategies involving self-limiting genetic modifications, Wolbachia infection and irradiation will be extended to a small number of our most important mosquito vectors of disease.

Biotech Mosquitoes Can Help to Regain Ground in Fight Against Malaria

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Florence Banoba,  East News,  2024-02-27 17:59:07.
In response to the recent opinion articles that ran in the National print and online media in the last couple of days (1st and 5th February, 2024), regarding the use of GMO technology as a tool in the fight against malaria, I wish to address the writer’s broad-brush dismissal of the significance of genetic modification technologies in combating malaria.  It is crucial, from the outset, to clarify a fundamental distinction overlooked in the article between Gene-drive and Self-limiting technologies in addressing this global health challenge.  As rightly stated in that article, gene-drive technology refers to a genetic engineering technique that aims to spread a particular gene throughout a population at an accelerated rate. The primary objective would be to either suppress a mosquito population or reduce its ability to transmit malaria. Under this method, the introduced mosquitoes are designed to stay in the environment for long.  In contrast, self-limiting technology involves the introduction of genetically modified organisms which possess traits designed to limit their population growth. This technology focuses on controlling or suppressing the modified organisms themselves.

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