FLICKR, YNSE“Gene drive” is a phenomenon that causes a gene to be inherited at a rate faster than Mendelian principles would dictate. It relies on genes that can copy themselves onto a corresponding location in a paired chromosome, thereby overriding typical allele inheritance patterns. In conjunction with CRISPR/Cas9, gene drives can be created with almost any DNA sequence, raising questions about the risk of engineered genes spreading quickly through a population. But a team of researchers from Harvard University published a study this week (November 16) in Nature Biology that offers some safety constraints on the system.
A description of the first CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive system was published in March by a team at the University of California, San Diego, and showed rapid spreading of a normally recessive phenotype in Drosophila. Other labs are researching the system’s potential to wipe out insect-borne diseases such as malaria by spreading mutated genes throughout a mosquito population. But the strategy carries the risk of accidental contamination of wild populations.
“We have a responsibility to keep our experiments confined to the laboratory,” Kevin Esvelt, an evolutionary engineer and coauthor on the paper, told Nature. “The basic lesson is: if you don’t have to build a gene drive that can spread through a wild population, then don’t.”
Esvelt’s team developed safety protocols—ways to prevent or reverse a ...
