A HANDHELD device could spot a potential new type of bioweapon made feasible by the latest gene- editing technology.
Researchers around the world are using CRISPR to make gene drives 鈥� bits of DNA that, when inserted into a living thing, can bypass the normal rules of genetic inheritance to spread widely in a population within just a few generations.
Gene drives could be used for good, for example to stop the spread of malaria by adding a gene to mosquitoes that renders all male offspring infertile. This could wipe out all malaria-carrying mosquitoes in a region.
Advertisement
However, there is also a risk of malicious use. For instance, gene drives could be used to make the bite of harmless insects deadly, or to wipe out key pollinators.
But to counter bioweapons based on gene drives, you first have to detect them, says Carina Nieuwenweg of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, who is working on the handheld detector. And that is best done with a quick field test rather than sending samples to a laboratory.
With her team鈥檚 device, all you would need to do is place a mosquito, for instance, in a small vial. 鈥淵ou just put the mosquito in and shake it once or twice, and that鈥檚 enough,鈥� says Nieuwenweg. The vial is then heated to 60掳C. Chemicals inside detect the DNA sequence of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene used to create gene drives. If the target DNA is present, the liquid in the vial changes colour (ChemRxiv, ).
The detector was initially developed as a student project, but has since been demonstrated to Dutch intelligence services, says Nieuwenweg. She is now getting funding to work on anti-gene drive technologies from the country鈥檚 defence ministry.
The US is also taking the threat seriously. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is spending $65 million on ways of countering gene drives as part of its Safe Genes programme.
However, Nieuwenweg says the risk of weaponised gene drives is small for now. The technology is still in its infancy and researchers have tested them in only a handful of species so far, often unsuccessfully. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we should be scared that someone is trying to make a bioweapon right now,鈥� she says, but the technology is advancing fast.
The device has the potential to monitor the spread of deliberately released gene drives, says Gus McFarlane at the Roslin Institute in the UK, who studies gene drives. But anyone serious enough to create a bioweapon might use an unusual version of CRISPR with a DNA sequence that won鈥檛 be detected, he says. There are easier ways of creating bioweapons than making gene drives, says McFarlane. 鈥淩ealistically, I think gene drives pose little threat.鈥�
Vittorio Saggiomo at Wageningen University, who also worked on the detector, agrees, but says it is still worth having a gene-drive detector just in case. 鈥淚t is better to have it than not to have it. I believe in having a counter-weapon before the weapon.鈥�
