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This is a database of print and digital media coverage of gene drive technologies and genetic biocontrol-related topics. This database is intended to serve experts and non-experts by capturing how gene drive/genetic biocontrol technologies and issues around the technologies are being represented, discussed, debated and evaluated by the public.
Genetically modified mosquitoes | Connect the Dots
16905thv11, THV11, 2021-04-30 17:56:23.
This is a local TV story from Arkansas of the Oxitec trial being conducted in Florida.
The first genetically modified mosquitoes released in the U.S. to buzz in the Florida Keys
16897K. Weintraub, USA Today, 2021-04-29 17:37:24.
On Thursday morning, workers from a British company placed basketball-sized cardboard boxes into six yards in the Florida Keys. Then they added water. In a week or so, 12,000 male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes will – one by one – begin buzzing out of each box, the first genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in the United States. Local officials argue the trial is necessary at a time when pesticides are increasingly ineffective against these dangerous pests. A 2016 vote on the project claimed a solid majority of support in most of the surrounding counties. "At the end of the day, our hope is to be able to control this mosquito more efficiently and keep our population below any sort of disease transmission threshold," said Andrea Leal, executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito District. "Our toolbox for Aedes aegypti control is shrinking, unfortunately, and that's making us think outside of the box."
Nearly 144K GMO Mosquitoes to be Released in South Florida: What We Know
16902J. Prigeon, 6 South Florida, 2021-04-28 17:46:54.
Nearly 144,000 genetically modified mosquitoes will be released in South Florida this week as part of an effort to reduce the population disease-carrying mosquitoes. The landmark release of GMO insects marks the beginning of the U.S.-approved program to control the number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the area. The project will place boxes loaded with Oxitec’s non-biting male mosquitoes in six areas around the Florida Keys to mate with biting female mosquitoes. As a result of the encounters, the female offspring will not survive and – hopefully – will reduce the dangerous mosquito's population in the area.
Nation’s first trial of genetically modified mosquitoes starts in Florida Keys
16889S. Brock, TODAY, 2021-04-28 15:15:04.
To control the population of potentially disease-spreading mosquitoes, a controversial project is getting underway in the Florida Keys, highlighted by the release of even more mosquitoes that have been genetically modified. NBC’s Sam Brock reports for TODAY from Miami.
Renew Europe | The science & ethics of gene drive technology from a conservation & development perspective
16584Renew Europe, Renew Europe, 2021-03-05 15:18:26.
This hearing intends to examine gene-drive technology and its possible impacts, including unintended ones and reveal the complexity of an unknown technology with inherent uncertainties. Scientists from different backgrounds in the field of gene-drive research will present most recent scientific findings and allow us to exchange on a technical, but also ethical debate. Hosted by MEPs Soraya Rodríguez & Charles Goerens with a keynote speech by Commissioner for Envinronment Virginijus Sinkevičius.
Should we dim the sun? Will we even have a choice
16384E. Klein, New York Times, 2021-02-09 15:06:18.
“Under a White Sky” is going to be on my best books of 2021 list. It’s a wonderful work. Kolbert is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Sixth Extinction,” which you may have read. She is a staff writer at The New Yorker and just one of the great science journalists of this time, and particularly one of the great climate journalists of this age. But this book, this book’s existence is evidence of how badly that fight is going. This is a book about what we are going to need to contemplate in the coming years that we don’t want to. It’s a book about taking responsibility for how irreversibly we have altered the natural world; how often we have tried to control it, and then watched those attempts at control fail; how often the best most scientific minds of the age have come up with some brilliant solution, implemented it, and then watched calamity result. And at the same time — and this is what makes the book so worthwhile — it is a book about how there is no going back. Not now, not ever. We are in the Anthropocene. The future from here is an endless layering on of new efforts to control the consequences of our past efforts. We don’t get to flinch or pretend we don’t have to contemplate any of this. We’ve gone too far. One of the hardest things to do as a writer — and I tell you this from personal experience — is to write ambivalence. It’s easy to write a polemic or a sharp take. It is hard to write down the middle path, where you are simply describing things as they are, knowing that every possible obvious answer you can come to is probably a bad one, knowing that the hubris embedded in past attempts to solve this problem means any future brilliant idea is likely to end that way, too, but that doesn’t mean we can do nothing. But Kolbert walks that path really beautifully here, which is why I wanted to talk to her for the show. As always, my email is theezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. I’m always interested to know who you’d like to see on the show. The weirder, the better. So send me your guest suggestions. Here’s Elizabeth Kolbert.
FKMCD – Oxitec | Mosquito Project Webinar Series
15564Oxitec Ltd, FKMCD and Oxitec, 2020-12-18 15:43:23.
This FKMCD - Oxitec Public Educational Webinar, our ninth, shows how Oxitec's just-add-water technology helps control the Aedes aegypti mosquito population. The second half of the webinar includes questions and answers with attendees.
ARRIGE 2020 Meeting | The promise of CRISPR and gene drive systems to end malaria in Africa
15145E. Gomez-Diaz, ARRIGE org, 2020-11-16 17:08:32.
Presentation by Elena Gómez Díaz (IPBLN-CSIC, Granada, Spain) at the ARRIGE 2020 meeting on "The promise of CRISPR and gene drive systems to end malaria in Africa". Discussion is included at the end of the Ruud de Maagd presentation.https://youtu.be/te3MJ8EZoes
NIH NExTRAC (Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee) | Workshop
15015NIH Office of Science Policy, National Institutes of Health (NIH), 2020-11-09 19:56:25.
NExTRAC provides advice to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on matters related to the conduct and oversight of research involving emerging technologies in biomedical science. NExTRAC also makes recommendations on research involving the use of, and developments in, emerging biotechnologies and will address scientific, safety, ethical, and social issues associated with areas of emerging biotechnology research for which the NIH requests advice or guidance. One of the technologies this committee is considering is gene drive. The November 2020 meeting was a workshop: GENE DRIVES: BIOSAFETY GUIDANCE AND CONDITIONS FOR FIELD RELEASE RESEARCH
Brave New Planet: Reshaping Nature Through Gene Drives
15047E. Lander, Brave New Planet, 2020-11-09 19:26:24.
A new technology, called gene drives, has the power to spread any genetic instructions you wish across an entire animal or plant species in the wild. It might let us restore ecosystems ravaged by invasive species, or help species adapt to climate change. And, it might save millions of children from dying of malaria. But could altering nature in this way, and on this scale, have unintended consequences? And, when it comes reshaping ecosystems, who needs to say yes?
GeneConvene Global Collaborative | Research and Innovation for biodiversity: what role for gene drive research?
14968EP Intergroup CCBSD, European Bureau of Conservation and Development, 2020-11-06 19:06:04.
This webinar will provide an overview of how gene drive works and the problems it seeks to solve, introduce the most advanced research projects on gene drive in the sector of public health and conservation and present the work that international and European bodies such as WHO, IUCN and EFSA are carrying out on gene drive. It will also be an opportunity to address any questions participants may have with regards to gene drive and stimulate an open debate on the safe and responsible development of the research in this field.
Florida to Release 750 Million GMO Mosquitoes in 2021
14703Seeker, Seeker, 2020-10-13 18:11:21.
The U.S. EPA gave the green light to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys in 2021 — here’s what we know.
Teach Me in 10 – Gene Drive Research with Dr. Jennifer Baltzegar
14362J. Baltzegar, Technology Networks, 2020-09-10 15:44:16.
Dr Baltzegar teaches us about how the maturation of genetic engineering approaches has advanced gene drives, the two different strategies for gene drives and some of the key questions surrounding the application of gene drives in society.
Anthony James / Mosquito Modification
14229Big Picture Science, SETI Institute, 2020-08-24 20:26:09.
Anthony James, vector biologist at the University of California, Irvine, describeshow we might genetically modify mosquitoes to make them unable to pass malaria on to humans.
ENSSER | Gene Drive Webinar Series
12568European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility, 2020-06-16 20:50:52.
This series of five Webinars by some of the authors of the interdisciplinary Gene Drive Report (2019) and were organised by four organisations of independent scientists: the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), Critical Scientists Switzerland (CSS), Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler (VDW), Sciences Citoyennes (SC). The series was aimed at a lay audience and were intended to address these questions. Does it really work? Is it being applied? What problems do gene drives address? What side effects can they have? Who has an interest in this? Should we do it? Are gene drives regulated by law? Are they a wise solution to these problems? Who decides?
Jonathan Latham on Gene Drives and the Gates Foundation
12259James 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.
Gene drive outcomes not determined by genetic variation – A Podcast
11240Thomas Locke, Malaria Minute, 2020-04-29 17:23:49.
Gene drives are a system of genetic modification that use ‘molecular scissors’ to edit DNA sequences that self-perpetuate to ensure the rapid spread of mutation in a population. They offer new avenues for eradicating vector-borne diseases like malaria. They rely on the Cas9 system which works by recognising a specific 23-base pair stretch of DNA, assisted by a complementary RNA molecule which guides the enzyme and a donor DNA fragment that replaces the original DNA sequence. If there was genetic variation in the mosquito with respect to the RNA guide molecule used, however, it’s thought that such recognition would be less likely, meaning that the gene drive could fail. But a new study published this week suggests that this isn’t the case. Out of over 1,000 Anopheles mosquitoes analysed, around 90% had at least one target site for the Cas9 protein, suggesting that gene drives are still viable and not dependent on variation.
The Buzz About Genetically Modified Mosquitoes – a podcast
7932The Scientist Creative Services Team, The Scientist, podcast. 2020-02-26 18:17:44.
Mosquito-borne diseases afflict a large portion of the world. In this month’s episode, we consider genetic methods to eradicate diseases such as Zika fever, Dengue fever, and malaria. We spoke with Omar Akbari, professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, San Diego, to learn more.
Davos 2020 World Economic Forum | When Humankind Overrides Evolution
6813M. Skipper, World Economic Forum, Davos 2020. 2020-01-21 15:32:08.
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?
Gene drives in Africa – A Podcast
5592Wakeford, T., etc Group, 2019-12-16 19:57:27.
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.
A Controversial Swarm Of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes In A Lab In Italy
5527NPR, 2019-10-20 19:41:57.
An international team of scientists is conducting a controversial experiment in Italy. The experiment is designed to test genetically modified mosquitoes that researchers hope could provide a powerful new weapon to fight malaria, which remains one of the world's greatest scourges.
Threshold-Dependent Gene Drives in Wild Populations – A Podcast
6900G. A. Backus and J. A. Delborne, BioScience Talks, 2019-10-08 14:04:47.
By altering the heritability of certain traits, gene drive technologies have the potential to spread desired genes through wild populations. In practice, this could lead to mosquito populations that, for example, bear traits making them resistant to the spread of malaria. Despite the huge potential for improving human well-being, concern exists that gene drives could fail in the wild or spread beyond their intended target populations. Writing in BioScience, Dr. Greg Backus, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis, and Jason Delborne, Associate Professor of Science Policy and Society at North Carolina State University's Genetic Engineering and Society Center, describe a potential solution. Threshold-dependent gene drives could limit the spread of wild-released gene drives to target populations, increasing control and reducing the risk of unchecked spread. The authors joined us on this episode of BioScience Talks to discuss the potential of these gene drives—and also some of the questions of controllability, spread, and ecological uncertainty that relate to them. Read the article. Listen to our previous podcast on gene drives.
Scientists release sterile mosquitoes in Burkina to fight malaria
17024T. Ndiaga, Reuters, 2019-09-18 13:18:20.
Scientists in Burkina Faso have deployed a new weapon in the fight against malaria, and waded into a thorny bioethics debate, by letting loose thousands of genetically sterilized mosquitoes.Their experiment is the first outside the lab to release genetically altered mosquitoes in the hope of reducing their ability to spread the often deadly disease. It works using a technique called a gene drive, which edits and then propagates a gene in a population - in this case to prevent males from producing offspring. Investments in anti-malarial drugs, mosquito nets and insecticides have slowed malaria over the past two decades in Africa, which accounts for more than 90% of global cases. But malaria still killed more than 400,000 people across the continent in 2017, and the World Health Organization says progress against the disease is stalling, leading researchers to push for fresh approaches.
How gene drives could transform pest control
5530TEDx Youth, 2019-08-13 19:49:22.
In New Zealand, 25 million native birds are killed each year by introduced predators. New Zealand has an ambitious goal to be predator free by the year 2050; however, current pest control methods will not achieve this goal. In this thought-provoking and compelling talk, researcher Anna Clark makes the case to add gene drives to the pest control tool box in order to protect New Zealand’s unique native species.
Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler e.V. | Gene Drive Symposium-Critical Science Switzerland
6674Critical Scientists Switzerland; European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility; Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler, 2019-05-24 18:26:07.
Dr. Kevin Esvelt, MIT | Gene Drive
5482iBiology, 2019-01-15 18:05:30.
Dr. Kevin Esvelt explains how CRISPR-based gene drives can be used to spread genetic alterations through wild populations. He discusses strategies to maximize benefit and minimize risk.
Why is this African village letting mosquitoes in?
4711BBC, BBC, 2018-10-19 00:00:00.
This is a BBC spot about the first release of genetically modified mosquitoes in Africa by the Target Malaria team. Very little information about gene drive but the context of this spot is notable.
RealSciLine | Gene Drives Media Briefing
6513Rick Weiss, RealSciLine, 2018-04-25 16:07:20.
Gene drives represent a new take on genetic engineering offering previously impossible means of fighting disease-spreading insects and invasive species but also raising the specter of ecological disruption. This briefing reviews the current status of gene-drive technology, applications under consideration, and related ethical, legal, and regulatory issues.
Gene Drives Can Wipe Out Entire Species… Or Save Them
5516Gizmodo, 2017-12-17 19:16:41.
Bill Gates and other investors have poured millions into gene drives. So what is the technology and why are scientists worried about it?
Centre for Effective Altruism | Gene drive and the case for reforming research
5476K. Esvelt, N. Labenz, G. Church, Centre for Effective Altruism, 2017-06-17 17:50:19.
The wisdom with which we develop and deploy new technologies will define the future of our civilization. Why do we conduct reseearch in small teams of specialists who cannot reliably anticipate consequences on their own? Might it be better to share our best ideas and plans with others, actively inviting concerns, criticism, and possible improvements? Unfortunately, the current system has evolved to punish sharing. By highlighting the benefits of an open approach and the dangers of the status quo, gene drive may allow us to test a new approach and change the governing incentives. + Fireside Chat with George Church, Kevin Esvelt, Nathan Labenz
Using Gene Drive to Control Malaria
4718The Scientist, The Scientist, 2016-12-31 00:00:00.
This article provides illustrations for how gene drive works, how gene drives spread, and how gene drive could be used to control malaria using population-wide gene knockout, skewed sex ratio, and population-wide gene knock-in techniques. Visit the article to view all illustrations.
Gene Drive Technology: Where is the Future?
6904National Academy of Sciences Engineering Medicine, BioScience Talks, 2016-06-29 14:38:31.
Gene drives have the potential to revolutionize approaches to major public health, conservation, and agricultural problems. For instance, gene drives might one day prevent mosquitoes from spreading a variety of deadly diseases, including Zika virus, malaria, and others. A form of genetic modification, the technology works by causing a particular genetic element to spread through populations, thereby making it possible to change species in the wild. Despite the significant promise, caution is warranted, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Committee on Gene Drive Research. According to the committee, gene drives raise a variety of ecological and regulatory questions that have yet to be answered. For this episode of BioScience Talks, we're joined by committee co-chair Dr. James P. Collins of Arizona State University and committee member Dr. Joseph Travis of Florida State University. They fill us in on the specifics of the report and on the future of gene drives.
National Academies of Science | Workshop: Science, Ethics, and Governance Considerations for Gene Drive Research – 2015
5544National Academy of Sciences Engineering Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, 2015-10-28 21:53:14.
What is Gene Drive?
4717Entomological Society of America, 2015-07-01 00:00:00.
A fact sheet from the Entomological Society of America.
