Gene Driven to Extinction?

In 2019, malaria infected almost 230m people world-wide, causing over 400,000 deaths. Everyone knows that the malarial parasite is transmitted by the bite of the female Anopheles gambiae mosquito. She needs the blood to produce her eggs. Most attempts to deal with malaria have focused on the female vector (an organism that transmits a disease). There have been several attempts to use 'gene drive' techniques to wipe out mosquito populations. If the vector disappears, so does the parasite. However, most 'gene drive' attempts have disappeared after a few generations. A recent attempt looks more promising. This has focused on the highly conserved doublesex gene. Sterile male mosquitos that were genetically modified to alter the doublesex gene were released into large indoor cages. The introductions resulted in the female mosquitos becoming infertile, wiping out the populations (no fertile flies were produced). Field trials will now have to be completed. The only possible downside is that mosquitos are food for numbers of wild animals including fish and birds. There are also promising trials of vaccines for the malarial parasite itself. It will be interesting to see which approaches prevail.