Gene drive modified mosquitoes offer new tool for malaria elimination efforts

Gene drives scare me. Being able to forcibly propagate a gene through a population seems like a strong candidate for causing an ecological disaster.

Slightly off-topic: Has anyone good recommendations against mosquitos? I hear UV traps are ok, but not perfect. And of course I have used the anti mosquito sprays. They don't last long though and I don't like the smell.

The idea of using gene drive on mosquitoes has been circulating for at least 8 years. [1] In that time, something like 4 million people have died of malaria, many millions more have been infected, and it is significantly impacting the economic growth of Africa. What will it take for us to pull the trigger on this?<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=TnzcwTyr6cE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=TnzcwTyr6cE</a>

That is a cool idea. Like the mouse that takes the thorn out of the lion&#x27;s foot: we could cure mosquitos of what ails them (even if they don&#x27;t know it ails them, as they are carriers - but they die more so for being that), and the mosquito could become the friend of humanity.

This is great. Mosquitoes are ecologically important pollinators. They’re also the worst human disease vectors.<p>I do wish, though, that they would consider modifying whatever protein mosquitoes inject to make me itch so bad… Looking forward to seeing this play out.

I encourage all to look up what a gene drive is - find replace all mentions of &#x27;mosquito&#x27; with &#x27;human&#x27;. This makes a nuclear bomb look positively provincial - all it would take is <i>one</i> disgruntled post-doc. Only by the grace of god...