Genetic engineering is breaking new ground in the control of mosquito-borne diseases. However, a genetic engineering approach isn’t the only option, as many biotech companies aim to prove. As the global climate continues to warm, disease-spreading mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti are expected to establish themselves in the U.S. and Europe. This could result in […]
Water-soluble capsules containing the eggs of genetically modified mosquitoes developed by the UK company Oxitec have reduced the mosquito population in a dengue-infected urban environment in Brazil by 95% after 13 weeks. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carry a number of infections including dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Dengue has increased almost 15-fold over the last […]
A study led by Oxitec has shown for the first time that diamondback moths genetically engineered to produce only male offspring can survive in the wild, a solution that shows promise for cutting populations of the crop pest. Caterpillars of the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella are one of the most destructive pests for growers of […]
Moth caterpillars attacking crops are the latest target of the UK company Oxitec, which uses genetic engineering to suppress the populations of crop pests and disease-carrying mosquitoes. The caterpillars of the soybean looper moth Chrysodeixis includens eat crops such as soybean, tomato and cotton across North and South America, causing problems for farmers. The caterpillars […]
From genetic engineering to synthetic food and immortality, biotech is getting surprisingly close to recreating science fiction in real life. Science fiction is always a step ahead of real-life science. The genre imagined space travel, wireless communication and virtual reality years before they became a reality. In fact, sci-fi has coined some scientific terms […]
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has partnered with Oxitec for the development of a new strain of genetically-modified mosquitoes that can help reduce the spread of malaria in America. In its latest effort to free the world of malaria, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has joined forces with Oxitec, a British company that […]
Tropical diseases are often neglected until an outbreak causes worldwide panic. Here’s how European biotech is preparing for the next one. “What we really need is a very fast and cheap way to develop vaccines,” biotech godfather Greg Winter told me earlier this year. Such precautionary measures may well be on our minds as Europe […]
Update (12/07/2017): France’s High Council for Biotechnology (HCB) has also backed the use, with caution, of genetically modified mosquitoes in France. Oxitec expects the report published by the HCB will help shape the policy to regulate the genetically engineered insects in France and eventually allow testing the technology in the French Caribbean. Originally published on 07/07/2017 A […]
In our fireside chat with Hadyn Parry, Clara had the chance to hear all about Oxitec’s exciting technology that could save us from Dengue and Zika. Oxitec’s GM mosquitoes have the potential to halt epidemics of mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika or Dengue, which according to Hadyn are actually causing more problems every year. As Hadyn explained, “we’re […]
Synthetic biology, or synbio for short, is rapidly infiltrating multiple fields. From bioplastics to food technology and healthcare, these are the startups in Europe that are expanding the frontiers of what synbio can do to improve our lives in many different ways. In the not-so-distant future, synthetic biology could bring us anything from spider silk […]
The house was packed to hear Joyce Tait of the Innogen Institute and Mark Lynas, an environmental writer, speak about smarter approaches to GM regulations. The second day of SynBioBeta yesterday started early, but fuelled by a passion for synthetic biology (on which a number of speakers commented), attendees packed into the lecture hall for a fireside chat on GMO regulation with Joyce […]