Imperial College creates male-biased gene drive mosquito population — a second genetic approach to malaria suppression

Scientists at Imperial College London, funded by the Gates Foundation through Target Malaria, demonstrated a second genetic approach to Anopheles gambiae population suppression: a CRISPR-based gene drive that biases offspring toward males, causing population decline by reducing the number of biting females. Published in 2020, the male-biased approach complemented the earlier doublesex strain and offered researchers two mechanistically distinct tools — important because different regulatory jurisdictions might approve different drive types, and because having multiple tools increases the probability that at least one achieves regulatory clearance for open field release.