'Gene Drive': Scientists Sound Alarm Over Supercharged GM Organisms Which Could Spread in the Wild and Cause Environmental Disasters
        
            By Steve Connor, 
                The Independent
             | 08. 02. 2015
        
                    
                                    
                    
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                            
                              
    
  
  
    
  
          
  
      
    
             
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    A powerful new technique for generating “supercharged” genetically   modified organisms that can spread rapidly in the wild has caused alarm   among scientists who fear that it may be misused, accidentally or   deliberately, and cause a health emergency or environmental disaster.
 
    
   
     
       
      The   development of so-called “gene drive” technology promises to   revolutionise medicine and agriculture because it can in theory stop the   spread of mosquito-borne illnesses, such as malaria and yellow fever,   as well as eliminate crop pests and invasive species such as rats and   cane toads.
 
      However, scientists at the forefront of the   development believe that in the wrong hands gene-drive technology poses a   serious threat to the environment and human health if accidentally or   deliberately released from a laboratory without adequate safeguards.   Some believe it could even be used as a terrorist bio-weapon directed   against people or livestock because gene drives – which enable GM genes   to spread rapidly like a viral infection within a population – will   eventually be easy and cheap to generate.
 
      
    
  “Just as gene drives can make mosquitoes unfit for hosting   and spreading the...
 
 
  
 
    
    
  
   
                        
                                                                                
                 
                                                    
                            
                                  
    
  
  
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