CRISPR-based Technology to Control Disease-spreading Mosquitoes

Recently, researchers at the University of California San Diego have come up with Precision-guided Sterile Insect Technique, a new CRISPR-based technology that restrains populations of mosquitoes that infect millions each year with debilitating diseases.

Precision-guided Sterile Insect Technique (pgSIT)

• The new technique is a scalable genetic control system that uses a CRISPR-based approach to engineer deployable mosquitoes that can suppress mosquito populations.
• Concept: As male mosquitoes don’t transmit diseases, the idea is that by releasing more and more sterile males, the population can be suppressed without relying on harmful chemicals and insecticides.
• Technique: pgSIT alters genes linked to male fertility and ....