Abstract
Scientists are recruiting CRISPR gene editing to fight malaria, and at least in the lab, one group at Imperial College London has just devised a strategy that wipes out the disease’s carriers—mosquitoes—for good. Researchers led by biologist Andrea Crisanti used CRISPR/Cas9 to generate a mutant gene that leaves female Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes unable to reproduce but allows males to continue spreading the female infertility mutation to offspring. Crisanti’s team also made use of a genetic trick called a gene drive, which propagates the infertility mutation at unnaturally high rates. In two experiments, each with thousands of mosquitoes, the team showed that the gene drive spreads through the entire population, leaving all the insects infertile after a dozen generations or less (Nat. Biotechnol. 2018, DOI: 10.1038/nbt.4245). “The power of the drive was unexpected and beyond our most optimistic expectations,” Crisanti says. “Overall this is a remarkable study,” says Gaeten Burgio, a
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