“The ability to create and modify ‘organic’ materials on increasingly larger scales has occurred with a number of breakthroughs in genetic engineering including automated DNA sequencing, DNA synthesis, the advent of computational bioinformatics, and the creation of genetically modified organisms. Today, Intrexon’s expertise in designing DNA and constructing complex gene programs utilizing a modular, scalable approach with an embedded capacity to predict the viability of a biological solution, places it at the leading-edge of this growing synthetic biology discipline.”
Tag Archives: Synthetic virology
RT: Genetically engineered mosquitoes battle Zika virus in Brazil
https://www.rt.com/news/329504-gm-mosquito-zika-virus-brazil/
The ‘Friendly Aedes aegypti Project’ conducted by the company’s subsidiary Oxitec aims to tackle the virus spread in the city of Piracicaba, based on the success of previous preventative measures introduced across Central and South America.
“As the principal source for the fastest growing vector-borne infection in the world in Dengue Fever, as well as the increasingly challenging Zika virus, controlling the Aedes aegypti population provides the best defense against these serious diseases for which there are no cures,” said Oxitec CEO Hadyn Parry.
…Oxitec is initiating a new mosquito production facility in Piracicaba that will have capacity to protect over 300,000 people,”
…Oxitec’s previous trials on mosquito population began in April 2015 after Brazil’s National Biosafety Committee (CTNBio) gave the green light for the UK company to release the insects into the wild.
“By the end of the calendar year, results had already indicated a reduction in wild mosquito larvae by 82 percent. Oxitec’s efficacy trials across Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands all resulted in a greater than 90 percent suppression of the wild Ae. aegypti mosquito population – an unprecedented level of control,” the statement said.
“Intrexon Corporation [http://www.dna.com/] , a leader in synthetic biology, today announced its subsidiary Oxitec and Piracicaba City Hall have expanded the ‘Friendly Aedes aegypti Project’ in Piracicaba, Brazil following strong results for controlling the Ae. aegypti mosquito population, the primary vector for dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus outbreaks around the world
…
Samuel Broder, M.D., SVP and Head of Intrexon’s Health Sector commented, “As a vector that transmits a number of serious diseases, the Aedes aegypti mosquito poses a major threat to public health and the economic welfare of nations. Brazil has been hard hit by dengue and the situation there has been aggravated by the recent introduction of Zika virus infections leading to a startling increase in the number of children being born with microcephaly.” Dr. Broder continued, “Through the responsible engineering of biology, we demonstrate a new paradigm of species-specific vector control resulting in dramatic reductions of dangerous mosquitoes, without persistence or harm to the ecosystem, representing a major scientific, environmental and clinical advance.”
Oxitec: How the technology works
How the technology works from Oxitec Limited on Vimeo.
Note: These posts on Oxitec and their GM Mosqitoes are not meant to induce fear or anxiety. My intention is that an awareness will actually diffuse any fear-mongering narrative that aims to profit and support the agenda of the gene splicers!
Hadyn Parry: Re-engineering mosquitos to fight disease
Published on 3 Jan 2013
In a single year, there are 200-300 million cases of malaria and 50-100 million cases of dengue fever worldwide. So: Why haven’t we found a way to effectively kill mosquitoes yet? Hadyn Parry presents a fascinating solution: genetically engineering male mosquitoes to make them sterile, and releasing the insects into the wild, to cut down on disease-carrying species.
TED Talk Link
Transcript:
9:27
“And that’s exactly where we are. So this is technology that was developed in Oxford University a few years ago. The company itself, Oxitec, we’ve been working for the last 10 years, very much on a sort of similar development pathway that you’d get with a pharmaceutical company. So about 10 years of internal evaluation, testing, to get this to a state where we think it’s actually ready. And then we’ve gone out into the big outdoors, always with local community consent, always with the necessary permits. So we’ve done field trials now in the Cayman Islands, a small one in Malaysia, and two more now in Brazil…
We can produce them, in a space a bit more than this red carpet, I can produce about 20 million a week. We can transport them around the world. It’s not very expensive, because it’s a coffee cup — something the size of a coffee cup will hold about three million eggs. So freight costs aren’t our biggest problem. (Laughter) So we’ve got that. You could call it a mosquito factory. And for Brazil, where we’ve been doing some trials, the Brazilian government themselves have now built their own mosquito factory, far bigger than ours, and we’ll use that for scaling up in Brazil.“
GM mosquito expansion announced
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35353768
A company producing GM mosquitoes says it is to open a new factory in Brazil as it expand its operations.
Small-scale studies in parts of Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands suggest engineered sterile mosquitoes can reduce wild insect populations by more than 90% when released into the wild.
Intrexon said the facility in Piraciciba, São Paulo, will be able to protect 300,000 people.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carry three viruses – Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya.
The studies were carried out by the only company currently trialling GM insects, Oxitec, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
Oxitec, which was spun out from the University of Oxford, was bought by US company Intrexon for $160m (£106m) in August last year.
Oxitec CEO Hadyn Parry said: ” As the principal source for the fastest growing vector-borne infection in the world in Dengue fever, as well as the increasingly challenging Zika virus, controlling the Aedes aegypti population provides the best defence against these serious diseases for which there are no cures.”
Note: “…fastest growing vector infection”? Captain Parry of corporate pirate ship Oxitec, states he will find the solution now we have a problem. Any shares for sale Captain Parry? Still private, ground floor oppurtunity investor, climb aboard.
Zika Virus: A New Threat and a New Kind of Pandemic
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/13/zika-2/
“Zika virus forces us to confront a potential new disease-emergence phenomenon: pandemic expansion of multiple, heretofore relatively unimportant arboviruses previously restricted to remote ecologic niches,” they write. “To respond, we urgently need research on these viruses and the ecologic, entomologic, and host determinants of viral maintenance and emergence. Also needed are better public health strategies to control arboviral spread.”
Question: Why is there now a pandemic of an “emerging” Zika mosquito borne virus, now that we have increased research into just that? Mosquitoes as vectors for disease. According to wikipedia, Zika has been very rare until 2007 and the recent cases.
Synthetic virology | Andrew Hessel | TEDxDanubia
Published on May 26, 2014
Andrew Hessel designs synthetic viruses and uses the latest 3D printing technology to create medicine that is designed individually for a single patient. The promise here is that once he succeeds to design a synthetic virus that is able to penetrate the medicine throughout the body of the patient, he can scale the solution and present the world an almost free and much more capable medicine against cancer.
Synthetic biology…it’s genetic engineering done with digital tools.
…You do all you genetic design on a computer and then there’s this brilliant machine called a synthesiser that prints out that DNA.
You put that DNA into a cell and you can make it do damn near anything fuel, drugs, enzymes, biochemicals
…cancer-breaking virus…actually using cancer cells to make the drug that kills them…”
Note: The ability to engineer or manipulate bacteria and viruses are boastfully stated as common practise, as well as being relatively cheap.
You can see how GcMAF totally destroys this embroynic pharma niche. A natural safe method undermines the custom gene-splicers.
EbolaInfo 