Gene drives & the environment

Numerous environmental factors (temperature, habitat availability, etc.) are known to affect mosquito ecology and their ability to reproduce. Therefore, the role of the environment is an important factor in whether gene drive constructs are successful or not.

What are gene drives? Well, here are two resources (1, 2) to get you up to speed on gene drives.

I work primarily in mathematical modeling to address the problem of understanding how the environment will affect gene drive releases (all work-to-date has been conducted in the laboratory or in semi-field trials, which have significantly less environmental complexity). The mathematics of doing this is not straightforward. To see our current framework for gene drive modeling, check out the MGDrivE page.

Papers:

• MGDrivE 2: A simulation framework for gene drive systems incorporating seasonality and epidemiological dynamics

• Winning the tug-of-war between effector gene design and pathogen evolution in vector population replacement strategies

Posters:

• New methods for modeling Anopheles gambiae s.l. movement with environmental and genetic data (ASTMH, 2020

• Incorporating environmental variables into mosquito gene drive modelling: fine-scale dispersal, temperature, and landscape-dependent connectivity (Epidemics7, 2019)