Media
A curated collection of articles from the popular press
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Driven to ExterminateZ. Moloo and J. Thomas, etc group, 2020.
Gates’s ‘let’s deploy it’ response may not seem out of character, but it was an unusually gung ho response given how risky the technology is widely acknowledged to be. |
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Gene Drives Could Kill Mosquitoes And Suppress Herpesvirus InfectionsA. Berezow, American Council on Science and Health, 2020.
A team of researchers writing in the journal Nature Communications has shown that a gene drive can be used to suppress infection with cytomegalovirus, a type of herpesvirus. |
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Do Africans Want Genetically Modified Mosquitoes?U. Effiong, The Pursuit, 2020.
The recent publication by fellow Nigerian scientists—Patricia Okorie and colleagues—originally drew my attention to the issue of GMMs. |
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You should be excited that scientists are releasing 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes this yearL. Westreich, Massive Science, 2020.
GM mosquitoes are successful in reducing mosquito populations, and reducing disease spread |
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The Con Job at Mosquito Control BoardE. Russo and B. Wray, keysnews.com, 2020.
Shouldn’t there be a consensus among scholars, scientists, experts and the public that this new technology is safe? |
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Can a Genetically Modified Bug Combat a Global Farm Plague?E. Nitler, Wired, 2020.
Executives from the US-owned, but UK-based, firm Oxitec and its multinational partner Bayer announced today that they have developed a fall armyworm that has a self-limiting gene introduced into the male of the species. |
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Gene Drive Control Worry Eased by Genetic Neutralizing ElementsStaff, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, 2020.
Bier and his colleagues have developed two new active genetic systems that address such risks by halting or eliminating gene drives in the wild, offering two new solutions based on elements developed in the common fruit fly. T |
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Biologists create new genetic systems to neutralize gene drivesUniversity of California San Diego, ScienceDaily, 2020.
Now, scientists at the University of California San Diego and their colleagues have developed two new active genetic systems that address such risks by halting or eliminating gene drives in the wild. |
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Why the UK could end up deploying risky gene drives while ignoring natural biological controlJ. Mathews, GM Watch, 2020.
First they cloned Dolly the sheep. Now they’re targeting grey squirrels |
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The Evolving Arsenal Against Mosquito-Born DiseasesJ. Smith, Labiotech.eu, 2020.
As the global climate continues to warm, disease-spreading mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti are expected to establish themselves in the US and Europe. |
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Mutant mosquitoes: GM insects ‘engineered’ in ‘new approach to pest control’T. Fish, EXPRESS, 2020.
This cutting-edge research provides the foundations for plans to prevent genetically modified organisms from reproducing with wild organisms. |
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Engineering speciation events in insects may be used to control harmful pestsUniversity of Minnesota, Phys Org, 2020.
A team of scientists led by Mike Smanski, Ph.D., in the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) has generated speciation events in fruit flies so that engineered strains can reproduce normally with each other, but mating with unmodified flies results in non-viable offspring. |
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How to fight the deadly dengue virus? Make your own mosquitoesJ. Emont, Wall Street Journal, 2020.
When the bacteria-laden male mosquitoes are released into the open and mate with naturally-born females, the resultant eggs won’t hatch. |
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GMOs make war on mosquitoesStaff, Kenosha News, 2020.
Given that recent record, we were a bit surprised to read that there was a ruckus over genetically modified mosquitoes going on in the Florida Keys. |
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Scientists Evaluate Environmental Impacts of Gene Drive OrganismsStaff, American Laboratory, 2020.
Researcher Marion Dolezel, from the Environment Agency Austria, and a team of international scientists published in the open-access journal BioRisk, discuss the potential risks and impacts on the environment. |
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Why Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Won’t Come to Texas Anytime SoonC. Adams, RA News, 2020.
Talks about releasing genetically modified mosquitoes in Houston began in 2018 between Harris County and Oxitec, a United Kingdom-based company that produces sustainable technologies or transgenic methodologies to stem the impact of disease-spreading insects. Talk also began ... |
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Do Africans need genetically modified mosquitoes?genetically modified, mosquito, oxitec, autocidal, SIT, perspective, malaria, gene drive synthetic, engagement,, Mail and Guardian, 2020.
The following is an updated version of an article I wrote for the University of Michigan Risk Science Centre a while ago: |
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Non-GMO approach reduces cases of mosquito-borne dengue by 77%GM Watch, GM Watch, 2020.
A randomized field trial found that mosquitoes infected with a natural bacterium called Wolbachia reduced cases of dengue by an "extraordinary" 77%. |
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An accident waiting to happen: Tech company to release 750 MILLION GMO mosquitoes in Florida to fight dengue feverZ. Sky, NEWSTARGET, 2020.
Oxitec plans to release 750 million OX5034s into the Florida Keys, something that sounds like the beginning of a doomed science-fiction movie. But the most shocking thing here is the fact that Oxitec received the EPA’s approval in May. |
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Genetically-modified mosquito plan offers hope for Keys, worldP. Goodman, keynews.com, 2020.
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District Board of Commissioners voted 4-to-1 to approve a trial using Oxitec’s second-generation genetically modified mosquitoes. I |
