UC Riverside professor, students work to combat Zika virus

Omar Akbari, an assistant professor of entomology at UC Riverside, and his team of undergraduate and graduate students are focused on stopping the spread of the Zika Virus. They’re going straight to the source.

“Right now we’re working on developing a mosquito that’s unable to transmit Zika virus,” said Akbari.

They’re also focused on engineering a system known as a gene drive. Akbari explains they can genetically modify mosquito eggs, then let them hatch and mate to create Zika resistant mosquitoes and release them. He said they’re capable of injecting 500 to 1,000 eggs in one day.

“We’re trying to develop a technology that’s cheap and affordable. You can simply release a few mosquitoes into a population and have those spread their genes into that population catalytically.”

However, will the FDA approve it?

“That’s the big question. We and others have shown this is entirely possible. It’s not a matter of whether or not we can do it, it’s whether or not we’re allowed to do it,” Akbari said.

He said people hear genetically modified and react negatively, but in this case, genetically modified could prevent a lot of suffering after the CDC confirmed the virus causes birth defects in babies.

The UC Riverside team is working as fast as it can, but Akbari said their work likely won’t be complete for several years.