Perspectives

Opinions on and about gene drive technologies and their uses.

Advances in genetic engineering test democracy’s capacity for good decision-making

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N. Kofler and R. Taitingfong,  Boston Globe,  2020-11-09 15:31:50.
New advances in genetic engineering and their application for environmental conservation and public health are further testing our democracy’s capacity for good decision-making. With minimal public input, the Environmental Protection Agency recently approved the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida and Texas. An application for the planting of GM American Chestnut trees, engineered to reproduce and spread in the wild, is currently under review by the US Department of Agriculture. And even more complex and powerful genetic technologies intended for environmental release are in the research pipeline.

Driven to Exterminate

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Z. Moloo and J. Thomas,  etc group,  2020-10-14 18:16:08.
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.

Do Africans Want Genetically Modified Mosquitoes?

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U. Effiong,  The Pursuit,  2020-09-30 13:38:38.
The recent publication by fellow Nigerian scientists—Patricia Okorie and colleagues—originally drew my attention to the issue of GMMs.

Global citizen deliberation on genome editing

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J. S. Dryzek, D. Nicol, S. Niemeyer, S. Pemberton, N. Curato, A. Bächtiger, P. Batterham, B. Bedsted, S. Burall, M. Burgess, G. Burgio, Y. Castelfranchi, H. Chneiweiss, G. Church, M. Crossley, J. de Vries, M. Farooque, M. Hammond, B. He, R. Mendonça, J.,  Science,  369:1435. 2020-09-18 18:32:40.
Here we show how, as the global governance vacuum is filled, deliberation by a global citizens' assembly should play a role, for legitimate and effective governance.

Why the UK could end up deploying risky gene drives while ignoring natural biological control

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J. Mathews,  GM Watch,  2020-09-14 15:10:57.
First they cloned Dolly the sheep. Now they’re targeting grey squirrels

Do Africans need genetically modified mosquitoes?

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genetically modified, mosquito, oxitec, autocidal, SIT, perspective, malaria, gene drive synthetic, engagement,,  Mail and Guardian,  2020-09-01 14:32:06.
The following is an updated version of an article I wrote for the University of Michigan Risk Science Centre a while ago:

Viewpoint: Is there a scientific basis to ban gene drive technology that can rid us of virus-carrying rodents and mosquitoes?

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K. Vavitas,  Genetic Literacy Project,  2020-08-18 13:51:23.
Gene drives may be invaluable tools to control the spread of parasites, invasive species, and disease carriers. But the technology has faced strong opposition from activist groups and some mainstream scientists based on environmental and food safety. Are these concerns valid?

Cytoplasmic incompatibility: an autocidal mechanism for mosquito population control

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V. Dev,  BugBitten BMC,  2020-08-18 13:23:13.
Cytoplasmic incompatibility resulting in non-reciprocal fertility is a naturally occurring phenomenon, but remains unexplored to greater extent for the control of insect vector populations. This mechanism deserves priority for mosquito control and reducing disease transmission, being non-insecticidal and easier to operate with minimal investments.

CRISPR gene drives could eliminate many vector-driven pests and diseases, but challenges remain

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J. Champer,  Genetic Literacy Project,  2020-08-06 14:11:01.
A functioning gene drive system could fundamentally change our strategies for the control of vector-borne diseases by facilitating rapid dissemination of transgenes that prevent pathogen transmission or reduce vector capacity. CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive promises such a mechanism, which works by converting cells that are heterozygous for the drive construct into homozygotes, thereby enabling super-Mendelian inheritance.

An argument for gene drive technology to genetically control populations of insects like mosquitoes and locusts

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I. Ronai and B. Lovett,  The Conversation,  2020-07-14 18:15:19.
The fate of society rests in part on how humans navigate their complicated relationship with insects – trying to save “good” insects and control “bad” ones. Some insects, like mosquitoes, bite people and make them sick – remember Zika? Now the U.S. mosquito season is already in full swing, with over 10 cases of Dengue fever reported in the Florida Keys this year. Some insects, like bees, are pollinators that help produce our food. Others, like locusts, currently threaten crops in East Africa and Asia, preferring to eat our food instead. Insects have proven themselves extremely capable at evolving strategies to get around control methods, such as chemical insecticides and habitat modification, and current pest control technologies are simply not keeping up.

Socrates Untenured: Ethics, Experts, and the Public in the Synthetic Age

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C. Preston,  ISSUES in Science and Technology,  2020-07-14 17:44:20.
C. Preston (2020). Three tools have transformed biotechnology over the past decade and a half. Gene reading has made it possible to quickly sequence the genome of any living creature. Gene synthesis has made it possible to construct DNA sequences in the lab from constituent chemicals. Gene editing has made it possible to place those sections into an existing DNA sequence at any point a technician chooses.

Three innovative technologies stopping malaria

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B. Muni,  The Borgen Project,  2020-07-09 14:47:45.
Malaria has plummeted by 40% fifteen years after 2000. A report that NCBI published attributed this to mosquito preventative measures like bed netting and insecticides. These interventions and practices, like wearing light color clothing, help at-risk populations fight malaria. However, mosquitos are learning to fight back. Resistance to insecticides is evolving in mosquitos and malaria continues to afflict millions. In 2018, there were still 228 million cases of malaria and 405,000 deaths. Over 90% of these cases and deaths occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa, but there are many interventions that have the potential to stop malaria. Here are three innovative technologies stopping malaria.

Beyone the buzz

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C. Watson,  The Journal Gazette,  2020-07-07 14:45:26.
Lately I have found I need to force myself to follow science stories about something besides the pandemic. A story I consider hopeful involves genetically modified mosquitoes; we are developing a new tool that can reduce disease and save lives. The goal is to dramatically reduce the mosquito population. Mosquitoes, by biting people and injecting some of their saliva, spread diseases such as yellow fever, dengue fever and malaria. Malaria kills about 600,000 people a year, mostly outside the U.S. The new tool being developed involves modifying the genes of male mosquitoes. The goal is to design a male mosquito that will behave typically, but whose female offspring die almost immediately.

Please support a global moratorium on the environmental release of gene drive organisms

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J. Riss, J. Munic and B. Harlin,  Open Letter,  2020-06-30 14:34:22.
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 the EU preparation for the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP10).

Soon we’ll be able to engineer the wild, can the policies keep up with the science?

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M. Montague and A. Kobokovich,  The Hill,  2020-06-29 14:32:02.
Humans have been able to genetically alter the world around them for thousands of years. With the domestication of dogs at least 14,000 years ago, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been a constant feature of human society; only recently have we gained the ability to perform these modifications at the molecular level. Even more recently, gene drive technology has fundamentally added the ability of humans to modify wild organisms, not only domesticated organisms. With the ability to make rapid, permanent changes to wild species on the near horizon, we must act now to implement policies that will carefully regulate their use while allowing for vital scientific research to continue.

Species Extinction & the Case for a Global Moratorium on Gene Drives

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M. Imken,  ARC,  2020-06-14 20:33:30.
One million species are currently threatened with extinction, and humanity faces the challenge of stopping the sixth mass extinction in the history of our planet. Yet a new technology called Gene Drive enables human beings to reprogram wild species by genetic engineering and to drive these species to self-destruction and extinction.

Gene Drive: Can this be the Future of Agricultural Pest Management?

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P. Mondal, U. Mohapatra and M. Ganguly,  International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences,  9. 2020-06-10 14:25:16.
A world free of hunger may be possible when the agricultural production exceeds the global demand for the food. In the era of increasing population, the need for increased food production can be attainable by managing the destructive pests of the agricultural and horticultural crops. The detrimental effects of the pesticides and the attitudes of society towards transgenic crops indicate the researchers to catch out Gene Drive as the substitute method for former methods of crop pest management. In this context, the present narration describes how the self-sustaining CRISPR-based gene drive technology will be the leading technique in the near future for agriculture pest management.

Jonathan Latham on Gene Drives and the Gates Foundation

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James Corbett,  The Corbett Report,  2020-06-09 18:04:09.
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 DARPA are so interested in introducing genetic modifications into various species.

Genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in Florida and Texas beginning this summer – silver bullet or jumping the gun?

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B. Allan, C. Stone, H. Tuten, J. Kuzma and N. Kofler,  The Conversation,  2020-06-03 18:53:50.
On May 1, 2020, the company Oxitec received an experimental use permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to release millions of GM mosquitoes (labeled by Oxitec as OX5034) every week over the next two years in Florida and Texas. Females of this mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, transmit dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika viruses. When these lab-bred GM males are released and mate with wild females, their female offspring die. Continual, large-scale releases of these OX5034 GM males should eventually cause the temporary collapse of a wild population. However, as vector biologists, geneticists, policy experts and bioethicists, we are concerned that current government oversight and scientific evaluation of GM mosquitoes do not ensure their responsible deployment.

Engineered Gene Drives for Pest Management

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G. Miglani,  Biotechnology for Plant Disease Diagnosis and Management,  2020-06-01 09:06:32.
Genes in sexually reproducing organisms normally have, on average, a 50% chance of being inherited, but some genes have a higher chance of being inherited. These genes can increase in relative frequency in a population even if they reduce the odds that each organism will reproduce. Aided by technological advances, scientists are investigating how populations might be altered by adding, disrupting, or editing genes or suppressed by propagating traits that reduce reproductive capacity. Due to the discovery of gene-drive systems in insects and with the development of gene-drive technology using engineered site-specific nucleases, the last couple of years have seen a profound rise in excitement about the many possible uses of gene drive systems (GDSs). GDSs are capable of altering the traits of wild populations and associated ecosystems. A gene drive biases the transmission of a particular allele of a gene such that it is inherited at a greater frequency than by random assortment. A consequence of gene drives is an increased frequency of specific genetic elements or alleles and their accelerated spread throughout populations over successive generations. Here we will first describe the discovery, characteristics, types and mechanisms of GDSs. Next we will deal with development of gene-drive technology and its applications with special reference to their use in pest management and progresses that have so far been made to apply gene-drive systems in this area of research followed by limitations, safety and regulatory aspects of this technology. Finally, we will take up some key questions and future prospects of this important but still under-refinement technology.

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