Malaria is one of most serious infectious diseases today and has afflicted humankind for thousands of years. A significant number of people still die from this mosquito-borne disease, despite the use of various malaria prevention and control methods over hundreds of years and more than a century of coordinated global control efforts using modern tools, together with research into and development of new strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and disease treatment. Genetic approaches that focus on the vector mosquitoes to prevent malaria parasite transmission have been considered for many decades. Genetic control strategies received a significant boost with the successful development of gene drive systems, genetic methods for rapidly spreading beneficial genes and phenotypes through mosquito populations. This book reviews some concepts of gene drive systems and describes pioneering applications to control mosquito populations and prevent parasite transmission.

This book reviews some concepts of gene drive systems and describes pioneering applications to control mosquito populations and prevent parasite transmission.

Research on gene drive systems is rapidly advancing. Many proposed applications of gene drive research aim to solve environmental and public health challenges, including the reduction of poverty and the burden of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue, which disproportionately impact low and middle income countries. However, due to their intrinsic qualities of rapid spread and irreversibility, gene drive systems raise many questions with respect to their safety relative to public and environmental health. Because gene drive systems are designed to alter the environments we share in ways that will be hard to anticipate and impossible to completely roll back, questions about the ethics surrounding use of this research are complex and will require very careful exploration. Gene Drives on the Horizon outlines the state of knowledge relative to the science, ethics, public engagement, and risk assessment as they pertain to research directions of gene drive systems and governance of the research process. This report offers principles for responsible practices of gene drive research and related applications for use by investigators, their institutions, the research funders, and regulators.

Genetic Control of Malaria and Dengue focuses on the knowledge, technology, regulation and ethics of using genetically modified mosquitoes to interrupt the transmission of important vector-borne diseases including Malaria. It contains coverage of the current state of knowledge of vector-borne diseases and how they are currently controlled; vaccine, drug and insecticide development; various strategies for altering the genome of mosquitoes in beneficial ways; and the regulatory, ethical and social environment concerning these strategies. For more than five decades, the prospect of using genetically-modified mosquitoes to control vector-borne disease transmission has been a purely hypothetical scenario. We simply did not have the technology or basic knowledge to be able to do it. With the explosion of field trials and potential interventions in development, Genetic Control of Malaria and Dengue provides a comprehensive overview of research in genetics, microbiology, virology, and ecology involved in the development and implementation of genetic modification programs for virus and disease control. This book is meant to provide a practical guide to researchers, regulators and the general public about how this technology actually works, how it can be improved, and what is still unknown. - Includes coverage of vectorial capacity, critical to understanding vector-borne disease transmission - Provides a summary of the concepts of both population suppression and population replacement - Contains pivotal coverage of ethical and ecological ramifications of genetics-based control strategies

Malaria is one of most serious infectious diseases today and has afflicted humankind for thousands of years. A significant number of people still die from this mosquito-borne disease, despite the use of various malaria prevention and control methods over hundreds of years and more than a century of coordinated global control efforts using modern tools, together with research into and development of new strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and disease treatment. Genetic approaches that focus on the vector mosquitoes to prevent malaria parasite transmission have been considered for many decades. Genetic control strategies received a significant boost with the successful development of gene drive systems, genetic methods for rapidly spreading beneficial genes and phenotypes through mosquito populations. This book reviews some concepts of gene drive systems and describes pioneering applications to control mosquito populations and prevent parasite transmission.

Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death globally, particularly among children and young adults. The spread of new pathogens and the threat of antimicrobial resistance pose particular challenges in combating these diseases. Major Infectious Diseases identifies feasible, cost-effective packages of interventions and strategies across delivery platforms to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, malaria, adult febrile illness, viral hepatitis, and neglected tropical diseases. The volume emphasizes the need to effectively address emerging antimicrobial resistance, strengthen health systems, and increase access to care. The attainable goals are to reduce incidence, develop innovative approaches, and optimize existing tools in resource-constrained settings.

An in-depth look at genetic alteration in the natural world and the oppositions to it, seen through the case study of a gene drive for malaria. May We Make the World? is an engaging reflection on the history, nature, goal, and meaning of using a new technological idea—CRISPR-based genetic engineering—to alter the genome of the mosquito that carries malaria. This technology, called a “gene drive,” can alter the sex ratio in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, the key vector for falciparum, the deadliest form of malaria. P. Falciparum kills 400,000 people a year, largely the poorest children in the world among them. In her sobering examination of the issue, Laurie Zoloth considers the leading ethical arguments for and against gene drives, explores the regulatory efforts that have emerged long in advance of the science, and considers the philosophical questions raised by the struggle to eliminate malaria. The development of a gene drive for malaria will have far-reaching implications for it represents the first use of genetic engineering in the natural world and the first creation of a genetic variant intended to spread in the African wild beyond human control. Drawing on two decades of work, Zoloth brilliantly argues that we can understand the complex moral issues at stake only by carefully reflecting on the science, the nature of the local and global discourse about genetic engineering, and the long history of malaria, which—as it transformed from a worldwide disease to a tropical one—reshaped the world as we know it.