Website oxitec.com Parent organization Intrexon | Founded 2002 | |
 | ||
Industry Biotechnology, Pest Control Key people Hadyn Parry (CEO)
Luke Alphey (Founder) | ||
The mrcu oxitec project
Oxitec (orig. Oxford Insect Technologies) is a British biotechnology company which develops genetically modified insects to assist in insect control. The company develops methods for control of insect populations, in which genetically modified insects are used as a "living insecticide". Thereby, insects which transmit disease to humans or which occur as pests in agriculture are controlled without the use of insecticides. According to the company, this method of population control is more effective than insecticides and more environmentally friendly. The method has similarities to sterile insect technique.
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History
Oxitec was started in 2002 by Oxford University's Isis Innovation technology transfer company. In August 2015 Oxitec was purchased by U.S.-based Intrexon Corp in a deal valued at $160 million.
Transgenic yellow fever mosquito
Oxitec is working to develop a genetically modified version of Aedes aegypti to help control the transmission of mosquito borne diseases. Oxitec has created genetically altered males of the species (OX513A) that produce the protein tTA, which negatively affects cell development. The transgenic animals need the antibiotic tetracycline to survive. If these animals are released in large numbers and mate with females, the antibiotic dependence is passed to the next generation and the offspring die. Thus, the Aedes aegypti mosquito population is greatly reduced and thereby the risk for the people in that region to contract a disease borne by that mosquito species.
Field trials
First field trials were performed on Grand Cayman, the largest island of the Cayman Islands, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, starting in 2009. Approximately 3.3 million of the transgenic male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were released. The experiments demonstrated that the animals were able to survive in this environment and produce offspring. Some eleven weeks after the release, a decline in the Aedes aegypti mosquito population by about 80% was observed. Larger-scale releases could possibly result in even higher reductions. The tests were deemed a success by scientists, at the same time criticism on the communication policy has been voiced. In May 2016 Grand Cayman announced a program to use Oxitec mosquitoes to combat the virus. The first phase will inform the community about the programme. The next phase will treat an area with about 1,800 residents in West Bay, and comparing it with an equivalent untreated area. If all goes well, the project will expand across the island.
In 2011 another field test took place in Brazil in cooperation with the company Moscamed and the University of São Paulo, in which again transgenic Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were released in large numbers and the mosquitoes were reduced by 80–95%. More field trials were carried out in Malaysia and Panama. Another field trial is planned in Florida. In 2016 the World Health Organisation encouraged field trials of transgenic male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to try to halt the spread of the Zika virus.
Authorization
OX513A was approved by the Brazil's National Biosecurity Technical Commission (CTNBio) in April 2014 and it was being used to try to combat the Zika virus in the town of Piracicaba, São Paulo in 2016.
Brazil’s health-regulatory agency, Anvisa, declared on 12 April 2016 that it would regulate Oxitec’s mosquitoes. Anvisa announced that it was creating a legal framework for regulations. It requested Oxitec to demonstrate that its technology is safe and can reduce the transmission of mosquito-borne viruses.