The Hindu : Front Page : Genetically Modified mosquito under trial in a lab near Chennai

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Friday, Jun 19, 2009
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Genetically Modified mosquito under trial in a lab near Chennai

Shastry V. Mallady

Evaluation in second stage
Technology helps to control dengue or chikungunya

S.S. Vasan

MADURAI: Trials on the Genetically Modified (GM) mosquito engineered by researchers at the University of Oxford to control dengue/chikungunya are under way at a laboratory near Chennai.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, gave permission to conduct the evaluation in India. It is in progress at the International Institute of Biotechnology And Toxicology (IIBAT) at Padappai near Chennai. The trials have reached the second stage.

“It is a promising technology which deploys genetically sterile Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes to fight the disease-causing ones,” S.S. Vasan, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Head of Public Health, Oxitec (Oxford Insect Technologies), said speaking to The Hindu here on Thursday.

Oxitec, a company founded in 2002 to commercialise science and technology invented at the university, is working with about 10 countries, including India, to carry out the trials under confined conditions, according to Dr. Vasan. In India, the ‘GM mosquito technology’ is being evaluated after having obtained clearance from the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, DBT.

“We got permission during the end of 2008 to fully conduct an evaluation. In India, it is now in the second of the three stages of evaluation,” Dr. Vasan said.

“Around 55 per cent of the world population is at risk of getting dengue and 120 countries are endemic. So, the University of Oxford has developed this GM mosquito technology in its laboratory by spending millions of pounds,” he said.

The third stage would involve limited open trials, after which the release of technology could be considered if all the regulatory parameters were satisfactorily met. The DBT had appointed a five-member expert committee to oversee the trials in India “and we are getting the technology independently evaluated by passing on the GM mosquito strains.”

“The goal is not to completely eradicate dengue or chikungunya. That is not possible. It is to bring it below the threshold of disease transmission through GM sterile mosquitoes,” Dr. Vasan said.

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