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Gene Drive Turns Mosquitoes Into Malaria Fighters (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: The war against malaria has a new ally: a controversial technology for spreading genes throughout a population of animals. Researchers report today that they have harnessed a so-called gene drive to efficiently endow mosquitoes with genes that should make them immune to the malaria parasite—and unable to spread it. On its own, gene drive won't get rid of malaria, but if successfully applied in the wild the method could help wipe out the disease, at least in some corners of the world. The approach "can bring us to zero [cases]," says Nora Besansky, a geneticist at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, who specializes in malaria-carrying mosquitoes. "The mosquitoes do their own work [and] reach places we can't afford to go or get to."
"Gene drive" apparently means that these genes are passed on to almost all offspring instead of just 50% of them. Which would allow the genes to spread pretty much exponentially, if they can get it to work. Currently it seems to work really well when started in male mosquitoes, but not so well when started in females, so there's still some work to do.