Gene Drive Technology in the News
Imperial College London hosts West African journalists for science media programme
Tags: Africa, Stakeholder engagementNana Appiah Acquaye, Tech Review Africa, 2026.
Imperial College London has hosted a delegation of journalists from Ghana and Nigeria under the UK-Ghana Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) Media Capacity Programme. The initiative, supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the British High Commission ...
As mosquitoes go year-round in L.A., a promising fix hits a snag
Tags: Mosquitoes, North America, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 2026.
Residents were supposed to get a respite from the ankle-nipping mosquitoes that fueled a recent surge in dengue fever in Los Angeles County. Typically, the invasive mosquitoes — called Aedes aegypti — essentially disappear from winter until early May in the region. Instead, ...
Ifakara’s Transmission Zero team convenes stakeholders to review project progress
Tags: Africa, Policy, Stakeholder engagementIfakara Health Institute, 2026.
The Transmission Zero Program’s team at the Ifakara Health Institute hosted key stakeholders from government and research institutions in Dar es Salaam on March 17-18, to review progress and strengthen collaboration on the Transmission Zero project, an international research ...
Prairie grower groups fund research projects targeting canola diseases
Tags: Agriculture, Genetic biocontrol, North AmericaIan MacKay, Oyen Echo, 2026.
Three projects intended to deal with the canola disease verticillium stripe stand out among 11 research programs that a prairie growers consortium is funding this year. Leaders of the canola agronomic research program have chosen projects that they feel are “key to advancing ...
African scientists lead in Malaria research
Tags: Africa, PolicyFlorian Jamax, Daily News, 2026.
For decades, African scientists have contributed essential data to global scientific research. Increasingly, however, they are no longer just contributors. Across the continent, researchers are assuming leadership roles, designing studies, building advanced laboratories and ...
Selfish sperm hijack Overdrive gene to kill healthy rivals
Tags: Evolution, Fruit fly, Selfish genetic elementsLisa Potter, Phys.org, 2026.
A new University of Utah-led study has discovered the mechanism behind a decades-old evolutionary mystery—how "selfish chromosomes" cheat the rules of genetic inheritance. The researchers found that rogue chromosomes hijack the Overdrive (Ovd) gene to destroy rival sperm. The ...
Feral rabbit numbers are booming, so do myxomatosis and calicivirus still work, and what’s next for biocontrol?
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Oceania, Other mammals, Pest managementBelinda Smith, ABC News, 2026.
If you've noticed more feral rabbits around than usual, you're right. Much of Australia is experiencing a bunny boom, driven by consecutive years of good breeding conditions. But with an estimated 200 million feral European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) currently hopping around ...
Equatorial Guinea’s high-tech push to end malaria by 2030
Tags: Africa, Malaria, Policy, Vector controlRonald Musoke, The Independent, 2026.
In the humid equatorial belt of Central Africa; where dense forests, heavy rains and winding rivers create ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, malaria has long been a stubborn public health adversary. For Equatorial Guinea, the disease has shaped health outcomes, economic ...
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine joins the Target Malaria Consortium
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Target malariaDr. Tony Nolan, Target Malaria: News, 2026.
Target Malaria has so far been working on the three widespread vectors of the Anopheles gambiae species complex: An. coluzzii, An. gambiae, and An. arabiensis. As members of a species complex, these three species are morphologically indistinguishable. Together, they are among ...
Is a ‘selfish gene’ making a Utah family have twice as many boys as girls?
Tags: Population genetics/dynamics, Selfish genetic elements, Sex distorterEwen Callaway, Nature, 2026.
By sifting through an anonymized genealogy database, researchers have discovered a Utah family that has been having twice as many boys as girls for seven generations. It is the first clear evidence that humans might have ‘selfish genes’ that distort the sex ratio of offspring ...
“Millions have been released.” Hawaii’s beautiful birds are dying. But scientists have a controversial plan to save them
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Birds, Culex, Genetically modified mosquitoes, North AmericaJames Fair, BBC Wildlife Magazine, 2026.
About 6-7 million years ago, common rosefinches – which are today found across a vast expanse of northern Eurasia and are even occasional winter visitors to the British Isles – island-hopped their way from the Russian Far East across the Pacific Ocean and arrived in the newly ...
Space Coast releases X-rayed skeeters to take bite out of dengue
Tags: Dengue, Mosquitoes, North America, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Jim Waymer, Florida Today, 2026.
The Space Coast has unleashed 'nuked' skeeters in a new biological bid to neuter dengue fever. Last year, Brevard saw its first locally caught cases of the tropical disease and wound up with the most in Florida. In response, the county decided to let loose thousands of X-rayed ...
Wolbachia mosquito release cuts dengue cases 50–80 percent
Tags: Aedes, Asia, Dengue, WolbachiaMohamad Al As, Zaf Seraj, New Straits Times, 2026.
The release of Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes has led to a 50 to 80 per cent drop in dengue cases in several outbreak areas in Selangor, the Dewan Rakyat was told. Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said public health studies conducted during the early phase of ...
Three Stunning Ways Biologists Aim to Edit Animal and Plant Genes to Fight Diseases and Extinction
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Ecology, Gene editing, Synthetic biologySandy Ong, Smithsonian Magazine, 2026.
In the summer of 1904, Herman Merkel, chief forester at the Bronx Zoo, in New York City, was making his usual rounds across the property when he noticed something strange growing on American chestnut trees: misshapen constellations of swollen, orange-brown cankers. Unbeknownst to ...
Color-coded mosquitoes safely enables male-only releases to combat Dengue and Zika
Tags: Aedes, Aedes albopictus, CRISPR, Dengue, Sex SeparationJoshua Shavit, The Brighter Side of News, 2026.
Across much of the world, a tiny striped insect shapes whether families stay healthy or get sick. The Asian tiger mosquito carries Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya, and traditional control efforts often struggle to keep up. A new genetic trick that literally changes how these ...
Scientists in Australia have created a genetically edited cane toad that gets stuck in the tadpole stage and attacks the plague before it spreads.
Tags: Amphibians, CRISPR, Invasive species, Oceania, Pest managementNoel Budeguer, Click Petróleo e Gás, 2026.
Australia has begun testing an unusual idea to combat one of the country's most persistent biological invasions: creating tadpoles of the cane toad who have never seen adults. The goal is to cut the problem off at the source, before the animals grow, leave the water, and move ...
Researchers Use Gene Editing to Separate Male and Female Mosquitoes
Tags: Aedes, Gene editing, MosquitoesISAAA Inc., 2026.
Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a new genetic method to separate male and female mosquitoes, which is highly beneficial for large-scale mosquito control programs. Led by Doron Zaada and Prof. Philippos Papathanos, the study aims to improve ...
Florida releases millions of genetically modified mosquitoes from Oxitec in the Florida Keys to try to reduce dengue and Zika by up to 95%, in a real-world experiment that divides residents and ushers in a new era of ecosystem editing.
Tags: Aedes, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Mosquitoes, North America, OxitecCarla Teles, Click Petróleo e Gás, 2026.
In a quiet Florida neighborhood, things began with something that seemed mundane. Gray boxes started appearing in backyards and along the edges of mangrove swamps, accompanied by a simple instruction: fill with water and leave. Nobody saw anything special about them, just ...
Researchers develop temperature-controlled gene-editing method to potentially improve efforts to control disease-carrying insects
Tags: CRISPR, Gene editing, Mosquito husbandry, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Caliann Ferguson, UT Health Houston School of Public Health, 2026.
New research presents promising results from an innovative technique that utilizes temperature control to genetically engineer sterile populations of insects, such as mosquitoes responsible for diseases like malaria, dengue, and other vector-borne illnesses. Led by researchers at ...
The ‘mosquito factory’ breeding genetically-engineered insects to fight malaria
Tags: Africa, Malaria, OxitecRachel Schraer, The Independent, 2025.
A British company breeding mosquitoes whose offspring cannot spread malaria is set to start releasing the insects into Djibouti city by the end of the year. Genetically-engineered male mosquitoes hatched in boxes placed around the East African capital will produce female babies ...
New Gene Drive Stops the Spread of Malaria—Without Killing Any Mosquitoes
Tags: Africa, CRISPR, Gene editing, MalariaShelly Fan, SingularityHub, 2025.
Mosquitoes are an uncomfortable, itchy nuisance. But for people in sub-Saharan Africa, a bite could mean death. The pests are living incubators for the parasite that causes malaria. Roughly 600,000 people are killed by the disease each year, with most being children under five ...
Spot the males: New gene-editing method could transform mosquito control
Tags: Genetically modified mosquitoes, Mosquitoes, Sex SeparationRobert Egan, Phys.org, 2025.
Researchers have developed a new "color-coded" genetic method that makes it easy to distinguish male and female mosquitoes. This innovation can help solve a major bottleneck in mosquito control strategies that rely on releasing only sterile males. The approach uses gene editing ...
Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test
Tags: Anopheles, CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, MosquitoesMichael Le Page, New Scientist, 2025.
A genetic technology known as a gene drive could help prevent malaria by spreading genes in wild mosquitoes that stop them transmitting the parasite. Tests in a lab in Tanzania have now confirmed that one potential gene drive should achieve this if it were released in the ...
This scientist is breeding billions of mosquitoes to fight disease in Brazil
Tags: Aedes, Mosquito husbandry, Mosquitoes, South/Central America, WolbachiaMariana Lenharo, Nature, 2025.
nside a massive factory in the industrial district of Curitiba, Brazil, millions of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are breeding in a climate-controlled room filled with mesh cages. Every week, the facility produces more than 80 million mosquito eggs. At the heart of this effort is ...
Controversial genetically modified mosquito release paused after backlash in Qld
Tags: Genetically modified mosquitoes, Oceania, Oxitec, Policy, RegulationBrandon Long, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2025.
A plan to release genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in Queensland has been paused, with the organisation behind the idea withdrawing its licence application. Oxitec Australia — a partnership between Australia's CSIRO and US biotech firm Oxitec Ltd — aimed to sell its ...
UCMI partners with Equatorial Guinea to advance the fight against malaria
Tags: Africa, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Stakeholder engagementAna Kormos, Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research, 2025.
The University of California Malaria Initiative (UCMI) announced a new partnership with the Government of Equatorial Guinea on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which took place in New York City in September. The partnership will support the ...
Malaria Know More: Behind the Science of Gene Drive with Krystal Birungi
Tags: Funding, Malaria, Policy, Stakeholder engagementMalaria No More, 2025.
Congratulations on being named a 2025 Goalkeepers Champion by the Gates Foundation! What does this acknowledgement mean to you personally and professionally as an advocate for malaria elimination? BIRUNGI: It was pretty exciting and also very validating. Malaria has been ...
Innovation under pressure: bold ideas for a changing malaria landscape
Tags: Funding, Malaria, Regulation, Resistance, Stakeholder engagementEpstein, A., Tangena, JA., BMC Glob. Public Health, 3. 2025.
Innovation has never been more urgent. Encouragingly, the malaria research community is responding. Next-generation insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) [1], new indoor residual sprays (IRS) [2], and spatial emanators are reaching communities [3]. Vaccines such as R21 and RTS,S are ...
Reactions as IUCN Congress votes to adopt Policy on Synthetic Biology, rejects genetic engineering moratorium
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Genetic engineering, Policy, Regulation, Synthetic biologyEnvironNews Nigeria, 2025.
Following the vote at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, members have rejected a moratorium on genetic engineering of wild species (Motion 133) and adopted the IUCN Policy on Synthetic Biology (Motion 087), a move observers see as a signal of support for a science-based, ...
Cattle Q&A with Brinda Dass, GeneConvene Global Collaborative
Tags: Agriculture, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Pest managementTyrell Marchant, Progressive Cattle, 2025.
What factors have led to the northward spread of New World screwworm (NWS) over the past year after so many decades of successful eradication in Mexico and the U.S.? DASS: The northward spread of NWS after decades of eradication reflects a convergence of biological, ...
Should genetically modified wildlife be banned? Scientists weigh the risks
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Policy, Risk and safety, Stakeholder engagement, Synthetic biologyMariana Lenharo, Nature, 2025.
The global conservation community is debating whether to ban the release of genetically modified organisms into the wild. Dozens of non-governmental organizations have called for a moratorium on field applications of synthetic biology — a technology being studied as a tool to ...
UC Malaria Initiative Expands Activities to Equatorial Guinea
Tags: Africa, MalariaAndy Fell, UC Davis, 2025.
The University of California Malaria Initiative, which includes researchers at UC Davis, will partner in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea’s Vision 2030 strategy to eliminate malaria from the Central African country. The plan, which also includes Oxford University, Tsinghua ...
Biotechnology Is a Powerful Tool for Conservation
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Ecology, RegulationEmma Kovak, The Ecomodernist, 2025.
What do the American Chestnut tree, the black rat, and the northern white rhinoceros have in common? They are all prime targets for conservation through biotechnology. Genetic engineering could give American chestnut trees disease resistance and restore the keystone species to ...
From fear to leadership: Africa must embrace innovation instead of blocking it
Tags: Africa, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Policy, Regulation, Target malariaPatricia Nanteza, The Observer, 2025.
In Burkina Faso, the Target Malaria project, a global research consortium aiming to use genetically modified mosquitoes to combat malaria, has faced a major setback. On August 18, 2025, judicial police raided the Research Institute in Health Sciences (IRSS), a key partner in the ...
Genetically engineered mice could take the bite out of Lyme disease on Nantucket, scientists say
Tags: Genetic engineering, North America, Rodents, Vector controlJon LaPook, Denise Schrier Cetta, Aliza Chasan, Katie Brennan, CBS News, 2025.
Over the past 40 years, Dr. Timothy Lepore has been the emergency room head, sole surgeon and medical examiner on Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Today he runs the only private practice, where he treats dozens of patients with Lyme disease each year. About ...
How billions of hacked mosquitoes and a vaccine could beat the deadly dengue virus
Tags: Dengue, Mosquitoes, South/Central America, WolbachiaLucila Pinto, Nature, 645:578-580. 2025.
Last month, a parade of vehicles wound its way through three cities in Brazil, releasing clouds of mosquitoes into the air. The insects all carry a secret weapon — a bacterium called Wolbachia that lowers the odds that the mosquitoes can transmit the dreaded dengue virus to ...
Fruit fly tests in Greece target invasive species threat
Tags: Agriculture, Europe, Fruit fly, Invasive species, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Vassilis Kyriakoulis, Phys.org, 2025.
In a small persimmon orchard in northern Greece, scientists carefully open paper bags to release thousands of flies, in an experiment aimed at blunting the destructive impact of invasive new species. The insects are sterile male Mediterranean fruit flies (Ceratitis capitata), a ...
Mosquito gene drive cancellation disrupts Africa’s malaria research
Tags: Africa, Gene drive, Target malariaEsther Nakkazi, Nature Africa, 2025.
The abrupt suspension of an anti-malarial gene drive project in Burkina Faso has disrupted plans by scientists in Uganda working on their own modified mosquitoes. The Target Malaria project was put on hold by Burkina Faso’s government in August. Facilities holding genetically ...
After ‘humiliating’ raid, Burkina Faso halts ‘gene drive’ project to fight malaria
Tags: Africa, Funding, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Regulation, Sex distorter, Target malariaKai Kupferschmidt, Science, 2025.
On 11 August, the international nonprofit Target Malaria celebrated a milestone: In the village of Souroukoudingan, Burkina Faso, its researchers released about 16,000 male mosquitoes genetically modified to produce almost exclusively male offspring. The release, the first of its ...
This is the world’s largest ‘mosquito factory’: its goal is to stop dengue
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Mosquitoes, South/Central America, WolbachiaMariana Lenharo, Nature, 2025.
When biologist Antonio Brandão tells people that he works at a mosquito factory, they are often baffled. Why would you make more mosquitoes?, he recalls people asking. “We have enough of them.” But once he explains that the laboratory-raised insects can help to stop the ...
Are we winning the war on cane toads?
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, CRISPR, Ecology, Invasive species, OceaniaTom Gurn, Particle, 2025.
In 1935, a species known as the giant neotropical toad (Rhinella marina) was introduced to Australia. Scientists hoped these amphibians would control native cane beetles, but cane toads quickly colonised the country and had no discernible impact on beetle populations. Many ...
Target Malaria activities suspended in Burkina Faso
Tags: Africa, Policy, Regulation, Target malariaTarget Malaria, Target Malaria, 2025.
The National Biosafety Agency (ANB) and the National Environmental Assessment Agency (ANEVE) responded favourably in July 2025 to the authorisation request submitted by the Target Malaria Burkina Faso team based at the Institute of Health Sciences Research (IRSS) to conduct ...
Burkina Faso says no to Bill Gates’ plan of creating modified species of mosquitoes
Tags: Africa, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Policy, RegulationChinedu Okafor and BI Africa Contributor, Business Insider Africa, 2025.
In a statement published on Friday, officials urged Target Malaria, the initiative's principal NGO, to halt "all activities" in the nation. “All samples will be destroyed according to a strict protocol,” Samuel Pare, chief official at the higher education and research ...
EPA assessing risk of releasing genetically engineered mosquitoes
Tags: North America, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safety, Risk assessmentGary West, Capital Press, 2025.
The Environmental Protection Agency has convened a scientific panel to help assess whether genetically engineered mosquitoes could pose a risk to humans. In a paper released Aug. 21, the EPA said that as science advances it expects more proposals to control mosquitoes by ...
AUDA-NEPAD Delegation visits Target Malaria at the Uganda Virus Research Institute
Tags: Africa, Regulation, Stakeholder engagement, Target malariaRichard Linga and Christopher Maiso, Target Malaria, 2025.
Target Malaria Uganda was honored to host delegates from African member states at the Uganda Virus Research Institute. The delegates were taking part in a benchmarking visit during the East African Regional Engagement on Biosafety and Environmental Regulation for Malaria ...
Tanzania’s bold step toward malaria elimination
Tags: Africa, Gene drive, Genetically modified mosquitoes, MalariaGuardian Correspondent, IPP Media, 2025.
It is both mind-boggling and frustrating that an insect with an average lifespan of just two weeks can cause so much sickness and even deaths. Today, on World Mosquito Day, 20th August, the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) honours Sir Ronald Ross, whose landmark discovery in 1897 ...
The buzz stops here
Tags: Africa, Anopheles, Genetic biocontrol, Malaria, Population modification/replacementBill Gates, Gates Notes, 2025.
I've been working on malaria for over two decades. I’ve talked with researchers in labs and parents who’ve lost children to a mosquito bite. I’ve seen promising new tools and surprising setbacks. But I’ve rarely been as excited about a new innovation as I am about this ...
How biotech helps Florida Keys prevent mosquito-borne diseases
Tags: Aedes, Mosquitoes, North America, WolbachiaJanine Stanwood, Local 10, 2025.
Biologists with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) are releasing lab-modified mosquitoes twice a week in the Middle Keys. It’s part of a pilot program to reduce the population and help stop people from getting bitten. “They’re male Aedes aegypti,” said Dr. ...
CRISPR Mosquitoes That Can’t Bite
Tags: CRISPR, Ethics, Gene editing, Regulation, Sex distorterScience Techniz, 2025.
Scientists have used CRISPR gene editing to alter female mosquitoes so that their proboscis — the needle-like mouthpart used to pierce skin — develops like a male’s. The consequence is simple and profound: modified females can no longer pierce skin and therefore cannot ...
Millions of genetically modified insects have been released in Brazil, but why didn’t anyone tell you about this before?
Tags: Aedes, Oxitec, Pest management, South/Central America, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Noel Budeguer, Click Petroleo e Gas, 2025.
Few people realize, but Brazil is one of the most advanced countries in the world when it comes to biological pest control. Instead of relying solely on poisons and traps, Brazilian researchers are investing in technological solutions that, at first glance, seem like the stuff ...
