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Uruguay wants to use gene drives to eradicate devastating screwworms. A hereditary defect created with CRISPR could wipe out cattle-killing pests that cost the country millions.
A hereditary defect created with CRISPR could wipe out cattle-killing pests that cost the country millions.
Inside a highly secured facility at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) are a sophisticated gene gun, giant microscopes, and tens of thousands of gene-edited flies, their bright blue wings fluttering against the walls of their small, white, netted cages. These flies—shown to me on video by an INIA veterinarian, Alejo Menchaca—are a new weapon that may soon be unleashed against an enemy that kills cattle and costs the livestock industry millions of dollars every year: the New World screwworm, a parasite common in parts of South America and the Caribbean. Esvelt had been experimenting with engineering localized versions of gene drives to target Lyme disease in the US when he met the team of Uruguayan researchers on a tour of the MIT Media Lab.
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