Abdoulaye Diabate-a scientist from Burkina Faso is working on a ‘gene drive technology’ that can wipe out malaria-causing female mosquitoes by altering their genes.
- He was awarded the 2023 Falling Walls Prize for Science and Innovation Management for his research.
About Gene drives
- Gene drives harness the genome editor CRISPR to perform genetic surgery that speeds the spread of a gene through progeny.
- Malaria is transmitted through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes that are infected with the parasitic disease.
- Male mosquitoes do not bite so are unable to transmit malaria.
- With gene drive, female mosquito species that transmit the disease are prevented from producing new female offspring through the release of gene-edited males that are made sterile into the environment.
- Diabate said the female mosquito population would be depleted and malaria transmission halted.
- There are, however, some apprehension, as some scientists opined.
- Gene drive technology has to do with modifying genetic materials, so one never knows the new vector that you’ll have and what this will mean to the environment or the ecology.
