Mosquitoes carry some of the world’s deadliest diseases … but challenging geography, conflict, budgets, and insecticide resistance are among the issues hampering efforts to fight them. With global malaria cases continuing to rise and the climate crisis hastening the spread of virus-carrying mosquitoes into more countries, scientists are searching for low-cost, equitable ways to stop them [from] transmitting disease.
Could harnessing gene drive – a process that can rapidly spread a genetic modification – be the answer?
In broad terms, genetic modification is where scientists make changes to certain genetic characteristics, such as the ability of mosquitoes to carry the malaria-causing parasite. Whereas in an (artificial) gene drive, scientists alter the way genes are passed between generations to prioritise the spread of a certain gene.
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By pairing these processes, scientists can spread desired genetic modifications – potentially throughout an entire species.
