Development of synthetic speciation platform in mosquitoes for population replacement and genetic biocontrol

Project: Other

Project Details

Description

The goal of this project is to improve global health by applying novel synthetic biology tools to the genetic biocontrol of the disease vectoring Aedes aegypti mosquito. Ae. aegypti is responsible for hundreds of millions of infections, approximately 50,000 deaths annually, and causes billions of dollars in economic damages. Species-specific and scalable approaches suitable for low resource regions are in high demand.

This project will first engineer “synthetic species” of Ae. aegypti that are not capable of reproduction with wild populations. Next, a conditional female-lethal circuit will be incorporated into the synthetic species. This will make it possible to generate massive quantities of fertilized eggs which can be dried and distributed world-wide at room temperature. Genetically incompatible males can be released on site without sophisticated infrastructure.
Short titleMoscquito synthetic speciation
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/11/1820/01/24