GM mosquitoes (Score 1)

The paper from John Hopkins on malaria-resistant mosquitoes is exciting but still a long way from the field. There remains the technical challenge of spreading a new gene through a mosquito population and the regulatory challenge of determining the potential risks of such an activity. There is an alternate genetic strategy being pursued by a spin-out company from Oxford University called Oxitec. Oxitec's approach would be to release sterile male mosquitoes (only females bite) to mate with wild females. The progeny (larvae) do not develop and the population crashes - reducing bites as well as disease transmission.Oxitec is focusing on the Aedes mosquito that spreads dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever as a first target. This approach is simpler from a technical and regulatory perspective - there will be no persistence of the introduced genes in the population.