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Opinion: A cautionary tale of experimenting with genetically modified mosquitoes in Uganda
Tags: Africa, Gene drive, Genetically modified organisms, MosquitoesBarbara Ntambirweki, The Independent, 2024.
The Uganda Virus Research Institute is pressing forward with gene drive technology which provides a way to rapidly, permanently, and genetically modify wild animals or plants. Gene drive organisms, are a genetically modified organism (GMO) designed to spread a genetic ...
Otago GE Wasp Project Violates International Gene Drive Agreement
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive, OceaniaGE-Free NZ, Scoop, 2024.
Professor Dearden, Otago University, has received $11 million from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE) to engineer wasps using gene drive technology. He is only consulting with Māori and regulators, ignoring and side-lining the views of other concerned New ...
The Financialisation of Malaria in Africa: Burkina Faso, rogue capital & GM/gene drive mosquitoes
Tags: Africa, Gene drive synthetic, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Malaria, Policy, Target malariaS. Mentz-Lagrange and S. Swanepoel, African Centre for Biodiversity, 2022.
This paper seeks to understand the financialisation of malaria as a vehicle for rogue capital in a context of a weakened state (through capture, corruption and coups) and the power that limits effective interventions. It shows how malaria, along with other diseases, is ...
Mutagenic chain reaction cannot be sufficiently controlled
Tags: Europe, Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safetyChristoph Then, Testbiotech, 2020.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published the results of its public consultation on the risks of so-called gene drive organisms. Testbiotech accuses the authority of disguising the real dimension of the risks. Gene drives are designed to spread artificial genetic ...
Driven to Exterminate
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Target malariaZ. 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.
Why the UK could end up deploying risky gene drives while ignoring natural biological control
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Gene drive synthetic, Invasive species, Regulation, RodentsJ. Mathews, GM Watch, 2020.
First they cloned Dolly the sheep. Now they’re targeting grey squirrels
Please support a global moratorium on the environmental release of gene drive organisms
Tags: Gene drive syntheticJ. Riss, J. Munic and B. Harlin, Open Letter, 2020.
J. Riss, J. Munic and B. Harlin (2020). Open Letter. We, the undersigned civil society organizations, write to you to request that the EU Commission fully supports the EU Parliament's call for a global moratorium on the release of Gene Drive Organisms (GDOs). This is in view of ...
Jonathan Latham on Gene Drives and the Gates Foundation
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Risk assessment, Stakeholder engagementJames Corbett, The Corbett Report, 2020.
Jonathan Latham of Independent Science News joins us to discuss his 2017 article, “Gates Foundation Hired PR Firm to Manipulate UN Over Gene Drives.” We talk about gene drives, the dangers inherent in this technology, how the UN is involved, and why the Gates Foundation and ...
Davos 2020 World Economic Forum | When Humankind Overrides Evolution
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive synthetic, VideoM. Skipper, World Economic Forum, Davos 2020. 2020.
Advances in synthetic biology and other novel genetic procedures could resurrect extinct species or eliminate dangerous pests. What actions are needed now to ensure the ethical and responsible application of new genetic techniques?
Irreversible ecosystem engineering with Gene Drive Organisms
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, PolicySave Our Seeds, Save Our Seeds, 2020.
Gene drive technology is a particular application of the new genetic engineering tool CRISPR/Cas9. It is designed to genetically modify, replace or eradicate wild populations or entire species. So far it works in mosquitos, mice, flies, yeast and nematodes. But in principle it ...
Gene drives : equity demands civility
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Gene drive syntheticN. Kofler, Nature, 565:25. 2020.
At the 14th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity late last year, I witnessed the rapid deterioration of a crucial discussion. It was on the potential of synthetic biology in environmental conservation. What started as heckling turned ...
These are the 5 most dystopian technologies of 2020 and beyond
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive syntheticM. Sullivan, FastCompany, 2019.
Tech is always both good and bad. But we live in a time when everything gets weaponized—ideas, images, ancient texts, biases, and even people. And technology provides the tools to do it easier, faster, and with less resources.
Exterminator genes: The right to say no to ethics dumping
Tags: Ethics, Policy, Risk and safetyBassey-Orovwuje, M., J. Thomas and T. Wakeford, Development, 62:121-127. 2019.
The scientific-industrial complex is promoting a new wave of genetically modified organisms, in particular gene drive organisms, using the same hype with which they tried to persuade society that GMOs would be a magic bullet to solve world hunger. The Gates Foundation claims that ...
Gene drives in Africa – A Podcast
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Risk and safetyWakeford, T., etc Group, 2019.
In Episode #1 ETC's Tom Wakeford speaks with Ugandan lawyer and advocate Barbara Ntambirweki about gene drives, a powerful new genetic technology that can change species in the wild and make species go extinct.
Genetically engineered mosquitoes out of control
Tags: Ecology, Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyGM Watch, GM Watch, 2019.
According to a new scientific publication, genetically engineered mosquitoes produced by the biotech company Oxitec (Intrexon) have escaped human control after trials in Brazil. They are now spreading in the environment. The yellow fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) are genetically ...
Gene drive organisms: What Africa should know about actors, motives and threats to biodiversity and food systems
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Risk and safetySirinathsinghji, E., African Centre for Biodiversity., 2019.
In this briefing paper, we set out the key issues that our governments should have addressed with African civil society before endorsing positions and setting the benchmark for Africa-wide policy. In this regard, we point out that, while the impetus for the AU position might well ...
Gene editing research highlights challenges in using CRISPR for pest control
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, RodentsDreaver, C, Radio New Zealand, 2019.
US researchers have had some success in using the gene editing technique CRISPR to test out a gene drive in mice, to modify their genes - highlighting the challenges researchers face if it were to be used in pest eradication.
Gene drive mosquitoes and the new era of medical colonialism
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, MosquitoesMayet, MC, L. I.; Sirinathsingji, E, GM Watch, 2019.
The highly contentious issue of gene drive technologies – a novel extreme form of genetic engineering designed to alter or even eradicate entire populations and species – was at the heart of the international negotiations at the biennial UN Biodiversity Conference held in ...
Gene driving the farm: who decides, who owns, and who benefits?
Tags: Agriculture, CRISPR, Ethics, Gene drive, Other arthropods, Risk and safetyMontenegro de Wit, M, Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 43:1054-1074. 2019.
This commentary essay explores the social and ecological implications of gene-driving agriculture.
Africans paid 69 cents an hour to be bitten in GMO mosquito trial
GM Watch, GMWatch, 2018.Under the headline, Malaria trial pays Africans to be bitten, The Times of London reports that human “guinea pigs” in the West African state of Burkina Faso are being paid to expose themselves to mosquitoes that could potentially carry malaria or other diseases. ; ; Although ...