genetic engineering

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is not just a nuisance—it’s a known carrier of dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. Distinguished by the black and white stripes on its legs, the species is one of the most dangerous to humans.In the Brazilian city of Indaiatuba, an effort is underway to eliminate these pests before they have a chance to spread illness. The weapon: more Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—but ones genetically engineered to kill their own kind. Made by British biotechnology firm Oxitec, the mosquitoes seem…

In the muddy trenches of World War I, thousands of soldiers on both sides fell ill with dysentery, a diarrheal disease often spread by contaminated water. Curiously, one German soldier deployed in the Balkans didn’t become sick when the rest of his comrades did. When scientist Alfred Nissle isolated a strain of E. coli from the soldier’s stool in 1917, he found that it had strong protective effects against Shigella bacteria, a cause of dysentery. Over the past hundred years, this protective strain—now known as E. coli…

But even if the platforms’ accuracy improves, it’s hard to know whether they would be able to detect a completely new organism that scientists have never seen before. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, is skeptical that any technology will be able to definitively identify a bioengineered organism. “There is no technology—none—that comprehensively and reliably can distinguish between an engineered genome sequence and a natural genome sequence, and there never will be,” he says. “There are too…

In December 2004, plant scientist Cathie Martin went to the greenhouse to check on her tomatoes. The tiny fruits, about the size of gumdrops, were still green. These miniature tomatoes, a variety widely used in research labs, normally become red upon ripening. But when Martin came back after Christmas, they were starting to turn purple—just as she’d hoped.Martin and her colleagues at the John Innes Centre in the UK were aiming to make a tomato high in anthocyanin, an antioxidant-rich pigment found in blackberries and…

Illustration: Grandeduc (Adobe Stock)io9 is proud to present fiction from LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE. Once a month, we feature a story from Lightspeed’s current issue. This month’s selection is “The CRISPR Cookbook: A Guide to Biohacking Your Own Abortion in a Post-Roe World” by MKRNYILGLD. You can read the story below or listen to the podcast on Lightspeed’s website. Enjoy!The CRISPR Cookbook: A Guide to Biohacking Your Own Abortion in a Post-Roe WorldIf you’re reading this—on some godforsaken imageboard, or dog-eared book…

So far, B cells haven’t gotten the same attention—indeed, genetically engineered versions have never been tested in a human. That’s partly because “engineering B cells is not that easy,” says Xin Luo, a professor at Virginia Tech who in 2009 demonstrated how to generate B cells that have an added gene. That early work, carried out at Caltech, explored whether the cells could be directed to make antibodies against HIV, perhaps becoming a new form of vaccination. While that idea didn’t pan out, now biotech companies like…