The bold plan to end malaria with a gene drive

The invention of the CRISPR gene editing tool has injected new life into a line of research called gene drive. Gene drives use selfish genetic elements to spread a modification through a wild population. Researchers have proposed using gene drives against agricultural pests and invasive species, but the most urgent application is against vector-borne diseases like malaria, which kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Vox talked to the scientists working on this revolutionary approach for disease eradication to find out how it works and how long it might take to deploy a technology like a gene drive against malaria.

This video was created by Vox.