Fighting Malaria with CRISPR/Cas9

September 7, 2016

CRISPR/Cas9 is the most efficient new tool for genome editing. It is simple and cost-effective. There is great hope for curing severe genetic diseases using CRISPR/Cas9.

Since its publication by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier in Science 2012, the scientific community has discussed ethical issues, in particular those which affect following generations. Special focus has been given to germline modifications. But there is another application, the modification of insect populations, namely the “gene drive” system targeting female reproduction in the Malaria mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae.