Gene Drive Insects

Overview

I worked with a highly interdisciplinary group of graduate students during my PhD as a member of the NC State University's NSF-IGERT grant, Genetic Engineering & Society: The Case of Transgenic Pests. Our cohort was focused on the potential use of transgenic pests in agriculture. We worked together over the course of three years to consider the follow questions about the potential use of gene drive technology in insect pests of agriculture: Can we? Should we? If we should, how do we? I credit this diverse group for helping me to become a deeper and more critical thinker. After completing field work in Mexico and participating in workshops and discussion groups we published two papers (links below) that represent our collective ideas.

Mexico - Summer 2014

Pictured from Left to Right: Cindy Estrada Hernandez, Tina Ndoh, Esteban Niaves Nava, Jennifer Baltzegar, Johanna Elsensohn, Sheron King, Norman Borlaug (statue), Jaime Urzua, Jason Delborne, Nicole Gutzmann, Jayce Sudweeks, Jessica Barnes, Allan Hruska, Jennifer Kuzma, Fred Gould. Not pictured: Mike Jones.

Group Publications