For my current event review, I read the article “Engineering Mosquitoes’ Genes to Resist Malaria” by Nicholas Wade. Two teams of biologists, both working out of the Irvine campus of the University of California, have collaborated to create a revolutionary species of mosquito designed to eliminate (or at least limit) the effects of malaria and other diseases carried by mosquitos throughout the world. This species of mosquito has been engineered to have two specialized genes, one of which “spew[s] out antibodies to the malarial parasite harbored by the mosquito… render[ing] resistant to the parasite and so cannot spread malaria.” The other change causes a mechanism known as a “gene drive” to take place, which allows the malaria-resistance genes to thrive within a mosquito population, nearly assuring themselves spots in the genes of future generations of mosquitos. As a result, nearly all of the offspring carry the antibodies. Kevin Esvelt, a gene drive expert at Harvard, is thrilled with the outcome of the collaboration, stating, “We have a wonderful chance of knocking down malaria and dengue fever and other diseases…” Interestingly, this is a case of how published, reputable journals allow scientists to come together and solve practical problems with their findings. Dr. Gantz and Dr. Bier, two men who almost single-handedly revolutionized the gene drive technique through a series of experiments not depicted in the article itself, published their results in the journal Science. When Dr. James, the man who, along with his team, had produced the antibody gene, saw this entry, he immediately called Dr. Gantz and Dr. Bier, seeing an imminent opportunity to spread this malaria-ridding gene through countless wild populations of mosquitoes.
The findings in these experiments and the consequent collaboration that took place can and likely will have profound influence on the world and specifically, human beings. Nearly 600,000 people die from malaria every year, and if these species of mosquito can be incorporated into wild mosquito populations in malaria-prominent areas, the risk the malaria poses to human populations can be quickly reduced. It is important to note, however, that humans are generally skeptical when it comes to genetically manipulated organisms (as they should be). An enormous risk associated with these mosquitoes is that the artificially introduced mosquito population could interfere with the natural cycle of organisms in the area, drastically altering the wildlife. Only time will tell what practical, and hopefully profound, effects these mosquitoes may entail.
Overall, this article was extremely well-written and clear. While gene-drive and genetic altering techniques are things that I have touched on as a student in biology class, I did not know nearly enough to understand all the terms in the article beforehand. However, the author did a tremendous job providing essential background information and explaining certain mechanisms in layman’s terms such that they were easy for me to understand. Specifically, the author’s mentioning of the history behind the discoveries and experiments allowed me to paint a picture in my mind of the events as they were taking place. While these are qualities that one would expect from a author writing for a reputable paper like The New York Times, the article also flowed well, as one clear idea led to the next throughout. As a result, I am glad I chose this article to read and review; I learned a lot.
Ford Neild November 29, 2015
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Dear Ethan,
I felt that, overall, you explained the article in very concise manner without skipping over any of the essential details, as many people often do when summarizing. First, You were able to support your claim by inserting statistics and facts from the article, something that many people struggle with in these current events. Prior to reading your summary I would have never guess that disease-spreading insects could be used as carriers for vaccines instead and your statics helped me consider this upsetting possibility. Second, you described the scientist’s viewpoint in a very interesting way that held the reader's attention. Often people do not sound passionate when arguing scientists opinions, but you did a fantastic job of that in this description. One reason you were able to do this is through the use of the quote,“spew[s] out antibodies to the malarial parasite harbored by the mosquito… render[ing] resistant to the parasite and so cannot spread malaria.” It helped add a scientist's description that further captured the reader and added a new perspective. Thirdly, your descriptive vocabulary showed real depth of understanding on your part and added additional detail that helped to create a clear image of this previously confusing article.
Though, overall this article was very well written, there is room for improvement yet. Previously, I had commented that your descriptive vocabulary was intelligent and descriptive, however, for many of these words, they were too complex. To fix this, I recommend putting in parentheses the definition of the word. For example, I was not familiar with the term,gene drive. After doing personal research I found that Gene drive is the practice of "stimulating biased inheritance of particular genes to alter entire populations. Possible alterations include adding, disrupting, or modifying genes, including some that reduce reproductive capacity and may cause a population crash. In your relevance paragraph, you consistently mention the profound influences that this new technique could have on humanity. I was disappointed that you did not give specific examples of what other diseases this concept of implementing “gene drives” could cure. If these were not mentioned in the article, I recommend doing independent research in order to fix this issue.
From your summary I learned a lot. Specifically, I was amazed by how we are able to go from only affect two members of the sample population to editing the genomes of almost 99% of the male population.. Personally, I did a mission trip to africa, where I first hand experienced the effects of malaria, so this article concerned me deeply. As previously mentioned, prior to reading this article I would have never guessed that scientists we able to use mosquito's to cure such a potentially fatal disease. More importantly this helped me realize a much broader truth: in order to fix a problem one cannot simply try a resist the issue at hand, say by vaccinating, instead we must find the source of the issue, in this example mosquitoes, and solve the problem there
"Mosquitoes Engineered to Zap Ability to Carry Malaria." Science News. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mosquitoes-engineered-zap-ability-carry-malaria
Jeanne Chrisanthopoulos
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Due Monday, November 30th, 2015
Engineering Mosquitoes’ Genes to Resist Malaria
This article was interesting, and you did a good job of summarizing it in detail, but not too much. It was helpful that you cited statistics and facts from the article, and you referenced them within your review again. Because you said “[spews] out antibodies to the malarial parasite harbored by the mosquito… [rendering] resistant to the parasite and so cannot spread malaria,” I was able to quickly grasp the main idea and position of the scientist. This also helped influence my perspective. The way you described the scientist’s viewpoint grabbed my attention because you used language that emphasizes his points and showed your understanding of this topic.
Although you used fancy vocabulary, it was somewhat hard to follow especially if you just paraphrase what was said in the article without giving a clear definition of new terms that most people don’t yet know. Sometimes this requires searching in the dictionary or just on google to clarify a point like “gene drive” which you mentioned directly after the “spews” quote. So you should expand on the quote’s meaning and what “gene drive” actually means. Gene drive was mentioned around 15 times in the actual article, so it is surprising that the article didn’t exactly clarify what it meant in the article. In the article it just mentioned that it is a genetic vaccine, but for clarification I went to wired.com and saw that “gene drives force a gene to spread through a population.”
I had read a different article before I read this article about engineering mosquitos to spread vaccinations to prevent the spread of disease, and I wanted to read more about it, so that is why I chose to read this. This is very interesting, and I have heard about other genetic modifications like creating food with special benefits, but it is crazy to think that we have the ability to successfully alter an organism. I learned even more from this article than what I knew before. I was stunned by how quickly scientists were able to takeover the male mosquito population. This article helped me realize that we need to target the source of problems (the mosquitos) to stop spreading the issues. We can apply this to countless problems like global warming; stop using fossil fuels if we want to stop the climate crisis. Obviously it is not that easy, but that should be the target.
"Mosquitoes Engineered to Zap Ability to Carry Malaria." Science News. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mosquitoes-engineered-zap-ability-carry-malaria