Wednesday 15 April 2026 @ 13:15 – 14:00
Followed by PhD-session at 14:30-15:00
(Coffee and cake will be served between lecture and PhD-session)
1871-120 (Nucleus)
Hosted by: Juraj Bergman

Population-Scale Genetic Engineering with CRISPR Gene Drives

For decades, scientists have imagined genetic systems that could spread engineered traits through wild populations. With the advent of CRISPR technology, this idea is rapidly becoming reality. Socalled “gene drives” can bias inheritance in their favor, allowing them to rapidly propagate specific  genetic changes through populations even when those changes would otherwise be  disadvantageous. The potential applications are striking. For example, gene drives could be used  to spread traits in mosquitoes that block transmission of malaria parasites or make them vulnerable  to highly specific pesticides. Other designs, so-called suppression drives, could reduce or even  eliminate target populations altogether, offering revolutionary new strategies for controlling  disease vectors, invasive species, and agricultural pests. Yet the prospect of altering wild  populations at a population scale also raises profound scientific and societal questions. In this talk, I  will present experimental and theoretical work from my lab over the past decade on the genetic  design of CRISPR-based gene drives and the evolutionary dynamics governing their spread.  Despite recent successful laboratory demonstrations, predicting how gene drives will behave in the wild remains a major challenge, as natural populations are typically far larger, more genetically  diverse, and more spatially structured than laboratory cages.