Friday, July 31, 2015

CRISPR, gene drives and safety

Two recent papers speak to CRISPR, gene drives and safety:



Akbari et al. 2015 Safeguarding gene drive experiments in the laboratory. in Early online in Policy Forum section of Science.  
 Abstract: "Multiple strategies are needed to ensure safe gene drive experiments."

Unckless et al. 2015 Modeling the Manipulation of Natural Populations by the Mutagenic Chain Reaction Early online at Genetics.
From the Discussion section:  "... there are conditions in which accidental introductions of a single individual can lead to fixation of the MCR allele ..."