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NYorker Specter Mosquito Solution
NYorker Specter Mosquito Solution
modified. With a large enough numher feed mostly on rotting fruit and other
SPONSORED BY
oftho~C' eggs, the AedeJpopulation would sources of sugar. Only a few hundred
fall, and so would the incidence of den species, including AedeJ aegypti, need
gue. 'This is not a panacea,~ (;iovanini blood to survive. (The males never hite, ACURA
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Coelho, who coordinatC's the Brazilian hut without a hlood meal the females ADVANCE.
Heineken
open your world
UNITED.
eamed team and its mosquitoes are the briefest exchanges can he highly CONDE NAST 2012
treated with reverence, The researchers productive: "A single minute or so of I
passion allows her to produce all the ofdengue fever-the number ofcases re dIes so small they can be seen only under
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fertile eggs she will ever lay." ported to the World Health Organiza a powerful microscope, insert two genes
There has never heen a more eff-ective tion has increased thirtyfold since 1965 into eggs no bigger than a grain of salt.
killing machine. Researcher~ estimatf' can, at least in part, be attributed to the One gene carries instructions to manu
•
that l11osquitoes have heen responsihle enormous increase in tire exports. fucture far too much ofa protein required
for half the deaths in human history. Aedes aegypti r!on't fly far or live 'long; a to maintain healthy new cells; the results
Malaria accounts for much of the mo~ major traveller would move a few hundred are lethal. Scientists keep the gene at bay,
tality, but mosquitoes also transmit scores yards and, on average, survive as an adult and the mosquitoes alive, by placing the
of other potentially fatal infections, in for ten days. But it is a particularly wily in antibiotic tetracycline in the insects' food.
cluding yellow fever, dmgue fever, chi sect. Most mosquitoes are noisy enough to The drug latches on to the protein and
kllngunya, lymphatic filariasis, Rift Val wake a sleeping man and slow enough that acts as a switch that can turn it on or off.
ley fever, West Nile fever, anrl several one hite is all theyl1 get before escaping or As long as tetracycline is present, the
types of encephalitis. Despite om tech heing em shed with an angry swat. Aedes mosquitoes live and reproduce normally
nical sophistication, mosqllitot's pose a aef!YPti feed during the day and strike in si and can be bred for generations. Once
greater risk to a largt'r numher of pf'ople lence; they mostly stay low to the ground, they are released from the lab, however,
today than ever hefore. Like mo~t other preferring to hite people in the ankles or the antidote is gone; the lethal gene
pathogens, the viruses and parasites legs. The mosquito is highly sensitive to goes unchecked. Within days the males,
home by mosquitoes evolve rapir!ly to re motion---as you move, it will, too, often along with any eggs they help to create,
sist pesticides and dmgs. Manv insecti stahhing its victim several times during will perish. In fact, Oxitec has already
cides once used against Aedff aegypti arf' each feeding, depositing pathogens with modified all the Aedes aegypti eggs the
now considerer! worthless. ("very hite and, in turn, increasing its world may ever need.
Aedes aegypti is an invasive specie~ in chances of picking up dengue from in The other gene is a fluorescent
the Americas. It most likely arrived on fected peop1e to pass along to others. (Un marker-the molecular version of a
slave hoats from Africa in the seventeenth like most mosquitoes, which can lay hun branding iron-that helps distinguish
century, along with the yellow fever it car rtrerts of eggs in a single raft the si7~ of a normal mosquitoes from modified ones.
ried. The mosquitoes hrf'r! ea~ily in the grain ofrice, Aedes aegypti usually deposits The naked eye sees nothing, but under
casks that provider! drinking water on sail its eggs in multiple locations, thereby rais the microscope the larvae give off a rich
ing ships. During the eighteenth century, ing the odds that some will survive.) red glow, like a soft neon sign. Most of
a severe yellow-fever epidemic swept Dengue has always been considered a the altered eggs will die. Others will fait
through New England anr! Philadelphia, tropical illness. But its mode oftransport, to incorporate the new genes into their
as well as other American port cities; it the mosquito, rarely lives more than a DNA; these are useless, because the pro
took another century to discover that mos hllndred yards from the vector's principal cess succeeds only when the genes work
quitoes were the hearf'~ of the disease. source of sustenance--us-and as our their way into the critical germ cells the
Traditional mosquito control all hut demographics have changed so have eggs need to reproduce. The task is
eradicated Aedl's aegvpti (and the r!iseases those of the mosquito. Aedes aegypti has difficult and tedious: the technicians can
it carries) from the United States fifty adapted to the city with great dexterity. go through thousands of eggs to hit on
years ago. But globalizMion has heen Even the most effective mooem larvicides just one that will pass the new genes to
good to mosquitoes, partiC1llarly species the next generation of mosquitoes. But
like Aedes aegypti, which travel easily and once a sufficient number of eggs have
can lie dormant in containers for months. been correctly modified they can, after
In recent years, the mosquito and dengue many generations, produce millions of
have returned to Texas, Hawaii, and mutant mosquitoes.
Florida. The disease has also been trans 0X513A are raised in the relative
mitted for the first time in France and splendor of the laboratory. Mter they
Croatia. 'We have dragger! mosquitoes hatch, they are moved from petri dishes
around the world in hillions ofuser! tir("s: to plastic tanks the size of a home
Paul Reit("r told me. Reiter, a professor aquarium. Males are fed sugar; females,
ofmedical entomologyl'ltthe Pasteur In often miss the mosquito's well-hidden first lured by the smell ofhuman sweat,
stitute, in Paris, is one of thf' world's ex urban hrf'f'oing grounds. "Dengue is a feed on goat's blood obtained weekly
perts on the natural history ofrnosquito terrihle r!isease, just terrihle," Reiter said. from a nearby abattoir. "Thank God
borne diseases. Before moving to France, "Its danger is impossible to exaggerate. for that place," McKemey said with a
he spent more than two decades in And none ofthe methods used right now laugh. "You can't make mosquitoes
the Dengue Branch of the Centers for for dengue control are working. None." without blood." He stood in the close
Disease Control, devoting a surprising quarters of the rearing room as all
amount of his time to studying tirf's. Hf'
found that they are ideal incubators for
mosquitoes: tires ahsorh heat, trap rain
I t is not easy for an egg to become an
OX513A. Most were originally
modified in Oxitec's laboratories, in the
around him eggs were morphing into
larvae, hatching in the type oflong trays
bakers use to store loaves of bread.
water, and nurture hacteria in the pud English countryside not far from Oxford, Across the room, in transparent, water
dles they create. The <"xponentiai growth where scientists, working with glass nee- filled pails covered with cheesecloth,
40 THE NEW YORK!:R. JULY 9 F. 16, 2012
thousands of larvae, known to biolo
gists as wrigglers, were frantically t:rying
to work themselves out of their cases THE f\OSE-WAY IN GIVEf\NY
and emerge as pupae, the final stage be
fore becoming an adult. And in the reticulate distance
Adolescent mosquitoes have enor the cued inertia of Lucifer
mous heads and prominent eyes; under astounds. Our feet bleed:
the microscope they look like sea horses buoyant, the body at its task.
or miniature versions ofE.T. VVhile the What you wanted was what I
mosquitoes are still sheathed in t;heir wanted--slant of sun to the left,
cases, their transparent wings are pinned twinkling of civilization elsewise,
behind their bodies. By this point, the and the moon (whelp of history)
mosquito has begun breathing through to our backs, all come-hither
its syphon, a curling, segmented tube and dream. Motion understood
that pokes above the surface ofthe water is philosophy deferred: peace,
like a snorkel. When the moment is the felt pathos ofspace and time.
right, the pupae inhale, expand their ab Look, darling, at the establishing
domens, burst their cases, and emerge shot. It's downright Biblical,
head first as adults. "It's thrilling to see,"
McKemey said, as we watched the young
mosquitoes take their first tentative
this thrown-together vista,
world upon world without end. ,,
flights. ''1 never tire ofit." -Virginia Konchan
I
The Oxitec mosquito grew out of a
pest-control method called sterile insect
technique, or SIT, which has been used for Atphey faced several scientific hur tors and public-health philanthropies, in
decades. Billions of insects, all sterilized dles. He would have to engineer only cluding the Gates Foundation and the
by intense bursts of radiation, have been males. (Female mosquitoes bite, so ge Wellcome Trust. In 2010, the company
reared in laboratories like Moscamed and netically modified females could, in the ran a series of field trials in the Cayman
released to mate in the wild. In 1982, SIT, ory, pass novel proteins to humans, with Islands, releasing 3.3 million genetically
which prevents the organism from repro unknown consequences.) "I was trying altered mosquitoes on sixteen hectares of
ducing, successfully eradicated the screw to think of ways around the radiation land. 0X513A became the first engi
worm-a parasite that attacks the flesh of issue," he said. ''1 wondered, What ifthe neered mosquito set free on the planet.
warm-blooded animals-from North engineered lethal system could be sex The number of wild Aedes aegypti
America. But radiation is difficult to use specific? It turns out that, with Aedes ae mosquitoes in the area fell by eighty per
properly on insects as small as mosquitoes. gypti, females are considerably larger cent in two months. It was only a test of
Administer too little and they remain vir than the males. That was a lucky break, feasibility; no one knew how it might
ile; zap them too powerfully and the in because it means you can easily separate affect the local ecology or whether it
sects are left so weak that they are unfit to them on the basis of their size." would actually reduce the incidence of
compete for mates. Once released, the males would have dengue. Environmental activists feared
In the early nineties, Oxitec's chief to live long enough to impregnate fe that the release of engineered insects
scientist, Luke Alphey, was investigating males, and they would need to be could set offa cascade of events that no
the developmental genetics of Drosoph healthy enough to compete with wild body would be able to control.
ila, the common fruit fly. One day, Al males for the right to do so. "You want 'They don't know how it will function
phey, now a visiting professor ofzoology the insect to breed successfully in the lab in the real environment," Silvia Ribeiro,
at Oxford, bumped into a colleague who but to be dependent on an antidote that the director in Latin America for an envi
was talking about sterile insect technique. will no longer be available in nature," ronmental organization called the ETC
Alphey, who knew little about the field, Alphey said. "It was difficult to know Group, said. "And once they release it they
began to think about how to supplant ra how to do that." But chance again inter can't take it back." In 2010, Oxitec began
diation with the practices ofmodem mo vened: he happened to attend a seminar a smaller trial in Malaysia. But the Brazil
lecular biology. Alphey is reserved, with at which researchers described using ian experiment has been the biggest test so
a mop of brown hair and pensive eyes; tetracycline as a switch to tum off a far, and it has laid the groundwork for Ox
one can practically see his brain in mo gene. "The molecule prevents the itec's battle over entry into the world's most
tion as he works out a scientific problem. deadly gene from working," Alphey significant market: the United States.
His goal was not exactly to sterilize the said. "It was a perfect solution."
males but to alter their genes so that any In 2002, Oxitec was spun offas a com
progeny would die. If he could do that pany apart from the university. Alphey I n 2009, Key West, Florida, suffered its
first dengue outbreak in seventy-three
without using radiation, he reasoned, the began to speak at tropical-disease meet years. There were fewer than thirty
insects should be fit to compete sexually ings and in dengue-infested countries; he confirmed cases-a trifling number
for wild females. also gathered support from private inves compared with the millions who are in
42 THE NEW YOR.KER., JULY 9 & 16, 2012
fected each year in South America, M Grande, whereas there were more than intended to explore the possibility of
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rica, and Asia. There are just twenty sixty thousand cases in the Mexican testing the mosquitoes in one relatively
thousand full-time residents in Key states just across the river. "The popula isolated Key West neighborhood. "I
West, but, with more than two million tion ofAedes aegypti was actually larger don't really know what to expect," Al
visitors each year, the town is highly de in Texas," he said. But Texans have phey told me early on the day of the
pendent on tourists. I was there during screens on their windows (and keep the meeting. "But I hope the people of Key
spring break, which is not the best time windows closed), drive air-conditioned West understand that they have been
to visit unless you have a particular inter cars, and spend little time outdoors. lucky. Because they are living in a sea of
est in keggers, tequila, or Eagles cover Doyle wanted to lower the risk of a dengue."
bands. dengue outbreak in Key West, but the Opponents mobilized within hours of
"They feed this town," a woman who rustrict was already spending more than receiving notice of the meeting. Boldly
runs a cigar stand told me as we watched a million dollars a year on insecticide, and colored flyers, stating that the mosquito
scores of sunburned students work their he was loath to durnp more chemicals in control board was "planning on releasing
way down Truman Street and head to people's yards. Then a colleague attended and testing genetically modified (man
wardJirnmy Buffett's bar, Margaritaville, a meeting of the American Society for made) mosquitoes on you, your family
ground zero for the aggressively laid Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and told and the environment," were pasted onto
back Key West life style. "Sometimes it's him about 0X513A. "I remember think half the city's walls.
a little gross out there," she said. "But take ing that if this actually worked we would Before the meeting, I ran into Chris
the tourists away and we are just a bunch win in every possible way," he said. O'Brien, an artfully dishevelled woman
oftaco stands, bars, and beach burns." "Other approaches are more costly and with shoulder-length hair and search
Even a small dengue outbreak in Key more environmentally challenging. The ing blue eyes. She was dressed in the
West would send a troubling message. data looked solid, and certainly we need peaches and pinks one associates with
After 2009, the florida Keys Mosquito to think differently about mosquito con southern florida. She was also wearing
Control District added ten inspectors to trol than we have in the past." combat boots. O'Brien is a "conch," a
join the battle against Aedes aegypti. In In March, Doyle invited Luke Al term that describes people who are
2010, there were twice as many cases. phey, Oxitec's founder, and Hadyn born, raised, and spend their lives in
"Clearly, we have the potential for seri Parry, its chief executive, to explain KeyWest. Her children and grandchil
ous dengue outbreaks: Michael S. Doyle their approach at a town meeting. It dren are conchs, too.
told me. Doyle, an entomologist, is the would be the first in a series ofhearings "People live with mosquitoes here,"
district's executive director. He moved to
Key West in 2011, after spending five
years at the Centers for Disease Control.
"Part ofour problem is the image ofden
gue," he said. "A couple ofhundred cases
here could be devastating to the tourist
economy.
"Think about it," he continued.
"Somebody in Milwaukee is cruising
through Web sites and asks his wife,
'Where should we go on vacation, honey,
Key West or some place in the Carib
bean?' And the wife says, 'Hey, didn't I -'
hear something about dengue in Key
West?'" We were sitting in a cafe not far
from Ernest Hemingway's house, the
city's most heavily visited tourist site. I_ 1
,~
Like many public buildings, the cafe has
open windows and no screens; mosqui
toes danced in the air beside us. "We live
with open doors and windoWs," Doyle
said. "And they live with us. We are an ,-,
---c.=-, ~
ideal host."
Doyle is a soft-spoken man with rim
less eyeglasses and a neatly trimmed
------- I~'"
I
she said. 'We always have. We have had organization based in England, says. In a "But there are also unanswered questions
no dengue for two years and maybe, at lengthy letter to government regulators about the effect of insecticides on chil
most, we will have a few cases. It's not a in Malaysia, she stressed that there could dren, and we use them every day to try
huge deal. Certainly not big enough to be ancillary impacts "if the mosquitoes and kill the very same mosquitoes. It's
bring in an unnatural insect about which are eliminated altogether." For instance, important to remember: we're already
we know so little. You are in much more what would happen to those fish, frogs, trying to wipe this species out, and for
danger ofbeing hit by a car." other insects, and arthropods that feed good reason. The risk involved in elimi
on larval or adult mosquitoes? "What if nating them is very, very small. The risk
I
sterile, but has not denied that they are going to cram something down my throat ticularly in the rich Western world, ob
genetically modified; almost all their lit that I don't want. I am no guinea pig." ject to modified food, but such com
erature says as much. ''There is no lay plaints are almost never aired against
man's term for 'passes on an autocidal
gene that kills offspring,'" Alphey said.
"'Sterile' is the closest common term.
O ne afternoon before leaving Bra the same scientific process when it is
zil, I found myself inching along used to make insulin or heart medicine.
the rutted dirt roads of a neighbor "Sometimes I despair of these issues,"
0X513A is sterile in very much the same hood called Itaberaba, with Aldo Mal Paul Reiter, who has advised Oxitec,
sense as radiation-sterilized insects are avasi, the highly animated director of told me. ''The objections so rarely have
sterile." Hoffman stops short of calling Moscamed. Itaberaba is only a few anything to do with the science or the
Alphey's message deceptive, but he cer miles from the center ofJuazeiro, and, safety ofthe research. It is an opposition
tainly doesn't agree. "This country just as we drove, loudspeakers on the front driven by fear. I understand that, but
doesn't have the law or regulations nec of the car announced our arrival. 'We this technology has been used in a
essary to move this project forward right are here to talk about the transgenic different form for years." He was refer
now," he said. mosquito project," the speakers said. ring to sterile insect technique. "The
In Key West, the Oxitec scientists, "Weare here to explain this program to Oxitec approach is safer and more envi
along with Doyle and his team from you and answer your questions." Mala ronmentally benign," Reiter said. "If
the mosquito-control district, faced a vasi, a large and charismatic man, said, the phrase 'genetically modified' was
packed room at the Harvey Govern "There 18 only one way to get people on not attached, I don't think people would
ment Center. It was a warm, sunny your side: talk to them. This is a new even mind."
day, and many in the crowd had left technology. It is scary. But it also carries Malavasi shrugged when I brought
work early to be there. Doyle explained tremendous possibilities. People are not up the opposition. "I know this sounds
how a small experiment might pro stupid. You just have to tell them all of like science fiction," he said. "And I am
ceed; Oxitec made its case; then the that. Lay it out so they can decide." not naive. But to get rid ofthe virus, we
floor was opened to the publii;. The Moscamed has spoken to nearlyevery have to get rid of the mosquitoes. And,
meeting quickly became emotional one living in the affected areas. When a at least in this small experiment, it's
and, at times, rancorous. Oxitec-a team leaves a house, they etch the out working." He noted that the name of
small company that had emerged from lines ofa mosquito on the doorframe, so the program, the Projeto Aedes T rans
a wology department-was portrayed that colleagues will know which houses genico-the Transgenic Aedes Proj
as an international conglomerate will still need to be visited. ect-was not accidental. 'We put the
ing to "play God" and endanger an Bahia is one of Brazil's most impor word 'transgenic' right in the name of
American paradise. The insects were tant fruit-growing regions. We passed the program for everyone to see," he
referred to as "robo-Franken mosqui warehouses full of guavas, mangoes, said. "We hide nothing."
toes." More than a dozen people rose limes, pineapples, and papayas. The We had stopped at a random spot on
to speak; none defended the project scent ofrotted fruit filled the humid air. an unmarked road. The heat was oppres
or noted that, if successful, it would People live in small, brightly painted cot sive as we emerged from the car; a small
reduce a health threat and ease the tages in these towns, and it seemed that stream burbled by the roadside. "We are
county's heavy reliance on insecticides. at least one member ofevery family had in mosquito heaven," Malavasi said. As
Overwhelmingly, the people with had dengue. It isn't as hard to explain to he spoke, a team from Moscamed began
whom I spoke said they assumed that them the value ofa modified mosquito as unloading several casserole-size T upper
this decision had already been made; it is of, say, modified corn. "You tell peo ware containers from the back of their
the meeting was taken up with accusa ple you are messing with soybeans or van. The containers had white plastic
tions of lies and secrecy. But nothing corn and they get suspicious," Malavasi lids, and one by one they were flipped
had been decided. Every question said. "This is different. They have open, releasing thousands of male mos
asked, at the meeting or later, in writ suffered." quitoes. Each time a top was removed,
ing, was forwarded to state regulators When it comes to genetic engineer scores of the tiny insects would alight,
for their consideration. ing, acceptance clearly depends on the briefly, on the researchers' bodies-not
"It breaks my heart to think that you product. Opponents often invoke a to bite but to orient themselves. It was
guys have the nerve to come here and do one-sided interpretation ofthe "precau the first time they had experienced free
this to our community," one woman said. tionary principle," which argues against dom. For a moment, they seemed reluc
"Anything genetically modified should introducing activities into the environ tant to flyaway. Then, almost as a unit,
not be touched. I have a feeling that" ment that, in theory, could cause harm they would lift off and, after hovering for
she pointed to Doyle and his colleagues to human health. The sentiment is a few seconds in the moist afternoon air,
on the dais-"your minds are made up. I difficult to dispute, but so is the fact that form a kind offlying carpet, and set off to
know it. I can just sense it. I feel the vibe." dengue fever strikes tens of millions of :fulfill their destiny. +
46 THE NEW YORKER, JULY 9 ", 16, 2012