zika virus

A Biotech Evangelist Seeks a Zika Dividend

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A diverse biotechnology company hopes its genetically engineered mosquitoes
can help stop the spread of a devastating virus. But that’s just a start.

 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In the expanding realm ruled by Randal J. Kirk, sliced apples don’t brown. Salmon grow twice as fast without swimming upriver to spawn. Beloved cats are reborn.

And male mosquitoes are unleashed with the sole mission to mate, pass on a gene that kills their offspring, and die.

A few decades ago, the foods and creatures nurtured by Mr. Kirk would have been found only in dystopian fantasies like those written by Margaret Atwood. But Mr. Kirk’s company, Intrexon, is fast becoming one of the world’s most diverse biotechnology companies, with ventures ranging from unloved genetically engineered creatures to potential cancer cures and gene therapies, gasoline substitutes, cloned kittens and even glow-in-the-dark Dino Pet toys made from microbes.

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Puerto Rico braced for more Zika cases

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Hundreds of thousands of people in the US territory of Puerto Rico could become infected with the Zika virus in the coming months, according to the director of America’s Centre for Disease Control.

Dr Tom Frieden says this could lead to “thousands” of brain-damaged babies.

Zika has now been reported in 31 countries and territories in the Americas, with Brazil the worst hit.

There have been about 100 cases of Zika reported in mainland US.

These were in travellers who had recently returned from Zika-hit countries.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the virus can be found in about a dozen US states, so the mainland is bracing itself for locally transmitted infections very soon.

Southern states such as Florida and Texas are particularly vulnerable.

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