Project Title: CrispIR: Developing private allele gene drives to target insecticide resistance in the malaria mosquito.
Project Summary: Progress against malaria has stalled due to the spread of insecticide resistance (IR) in the vector, Anopheles mosquitoes. Gene drives are selfish genetic elements that target specific DNA sequences to modify or suppress a population using minimal resources. I will develop a gene drive to reverse IR in An. gambiae – by designing the targeting system to only affect individuals with an IR gene, leaving insecticide-susceptible individuals alone. I will also mine population-level IR data to find suitable future control targets, and explore the use of alternate gene drive enzymes capable of targeting a broader range of sequences in mosquitoes.
