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Exploring the value of a global gene drive project registry

Nature Biotechnology volume 41, pages 9–13 (2023)Cite this article

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Recent calls to establish a global project registry before releasing any gene-drive-modified organisms (GDOs) have suggested a registry could be valuable to coordinate research, collect data to monitor and evaluate potential ecological impacts, and facilitate transparent communication with community stakeholders and the general public. Here, we report the results of a multidisciplinary expert workshop on GDO registries convened on 8–9 December 2020 involving 70 participants from 14 countries. Participants had expertise in gene drive design, conservation and population modeling, social science, stakeholder engagement, governance and regulation, international policy, and vector control; they represented 45 organizations, spanning national and local governmental agencies, international organizations, nonprofit organizations, universities, and district offices overseeing local vector control. The workshop aimed to gather perspectives on a central question: “In what ways could a gene-drive project registry both contribute to and detract from the fair development, testing and use of GDOs?” We specifically queried the perceived purpose of a registry, the information that would need to be included, and the perceived value of a registry. Three primary findings emerged from the discussion: first, many participants agreed a registry could serve a coordinating function for multidisciplinary and multisector work activities; second, doing so may require different design elements, depending on the target end-user group and intended purpose for that group; and third, these different information requirements lead to concerns about information sharing via a registry, suggesting potential obstacles to achieving transparency through such a mechanism. We conclude that any development of a gene-drive project registry requires careful and inclusive deliberation, including with potential end-users, to ensure that registry design is optimal.

Recent advances in gene drive technologies are enabling potential new strategies for pest management, vector-borne disease control and conservation1. As developers, scientists, policymakers, ethicists and others debate the risks of harm and potential benefits associated with testing and implementing engineered GDOs, questions remain about how to ensure their safe and ethical development, testing and use. To coordinate research, monitor ecological impacts and facilitate transparent communication with community stakeholders and the general public, some have called for the establishment of a global project registry before any gene drive release2,3.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge all participants of the workshop. We also thank Anthony James for comments on a draft of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office (BTO) Program (Contract No. HR0011-17-2-0047). The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the views of DARPA, the National Institutes of Health, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, nor any official US Department of Agriculture (USDA) or US government determination or policy.

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Author notes

  1. Ramya M. Rajagopalan

    Present address: Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

  2. These authors contributed equally: Riley I. Taitingfong, Cynthia Triplett.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Riley I. Taitingfong, Cynthia Triplett, Cynthia E. Schairer, Kanya Long & Cinnamon S. Bloss

  2. Center for Empathy and Technology, Institute for Empathy and Compassion, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Cynthia Triplett, Ramya M. Rajagopalan & Cinnamon S. Bloss

  3. Energy and Resources Group, Rausser College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Váleri N. Vásquez

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Váleri N. Vásquez

  5. School of Biological Sciences, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Robyn Raban & Omar S. Akbari

  6. Institute on Ethics and Policy for Innovation, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Aaron Roberts & Claudia Emerson

  7. Department of Entomology, the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Gerard Terradas

  8. Revive & Restore, Sausalito, CA, USA

    Bridget Baumgartner & Ryan Phelan

  9. Genetic Engineering and Society Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Fred Gould, Jason Delborne, Todd Kuiken & Jennifer Kuzma

  10. Environmental Health and Ecological Science Department, Ifakara Health Institute, Ifakara, Tanzania

    Fredros Okumu

  11. Medical Entomology Laboratory, William A. Robinson Polynesian Research Center, Institut Louis Malardé, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia

    Hervé C. Bossin

  12. Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Leah Buchman

  13. Re:wild, Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

    Karl J. Campbell

  14. Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand

    Anna Clark

  15. Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Jason Delborne

  16. Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Kevin Esvelt

  17. Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Joshua Fisher & Adam Vorsino

  18. J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Robert M. Friedman

  19. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Gigi Gronvall

  20. Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Gigi Gronvall

  21. Vector Control Program, Department of Environmental Health and Quality, County of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Nikos Gurfield

  22. Program in Ethics in Science and Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX, USA

    Elizabeth Heitman

  23. Scientific Citizenship Initiative, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Natalie Kofler

  24. School of Public and International Affairs, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Jennifer Kuzma

  25. Laboratorio para el Control Biológico de Aedes aegypti, Unidad Colaborativa de Bioensayos Entomológicos, Campus de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, México

    Pablo Manrique-Saide

  26. Divisions of Biostatistics & Epidemiology, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    John M. Marshall

  27. Innovative Genomics Institute, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    John M. Marshall

  28. Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Michael Montague

  29. Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Amy C. Morrison

  30. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

    Chris C. Opesen

  31. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, United States Department of Agriculture National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Antoinette Piaggio

  32. Department of Biological Sciences, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA

    Hector Quemada

  33. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Larisa Rudenko

  34. BioPolicy Solutions, LLC, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Larisa Rudenko

  35. University of Thomas Sankara, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

    Natéwindé Sawadogo

  36. Science, Technology & Innovation Studies, School of Social & Political Science, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Robert Smith

  37. Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

    Holly Tuten

  38. David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Anika Ullah

  39. Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Nikolai Windbichler

  40. Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    James V. Lavery

  41. Center for Ethics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    James V. Lavery

  42. Program on Science, Technology & Society, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Sam Weiss Evans

  43. GeneConvene Global Collaborative, Science Division, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, North Bethesda, MD, USA

    Karen Tountas

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  1. Riley I. Taitingfong
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  2. Cynthia Triplett
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  47. Cinnamon S. Bloss
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cinnamon S. Bloss.

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Competing interests

A.C. is a PhD student supported by Predator Free 2050 Ltd through a Capability Development grant. J.D. has been a member of the Genetic Biocontrol of Invasive Rodents (GBIRd) partnership since 2017. K.E. is an inventor on patent applications concerning diverse forms of CRISPR-based gene drive filed by Harvard University and MIT. K.E. has called for the technology to remain nonprofit until the first major public health application is successful. N.K. is a member of a Council of Canadian Academies expert committee sponsored by Health Canada to consider genetically modified animals for pest control, and the founder and director of a nonprofit initiative called Editing Nature. R.P. is the co-founder of Revive & Restore, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the thoughtful use of biotechnology in conservation. O.S.A is a founder of Agragene, Inc. and Synvect, Inc., with equity interest. The terms of this arrangement have been reviewed and approved by the University of California, San Diego in accordance with its conflict of interest policies. S.W.E. was an advisor to the DARPA Safe Genes program that funded this workshop and paper development. C.S.B. served as Co-Chair of the Gene Drives in Biomedical Science working group of the Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee of the NIH.

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Taitingfong, R.I., Triplett, C., Vásquez, V.N. et al. Exploring the value of a global gene drive project registry. Nat Biotechnol 41, 9–13 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01591-w

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