Page - 107 - in Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies - Conference Proceedings of the 17th STS Conference Graz 2018

CRISPR-Cas9 based gene drives for fighting malaria: aspects of prospective technology assessment LIEBERT, Wolfgang Institute of Safety and Risk Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna, Austria One important example for research and development (R&D) aiming at technically engineered gene drives (or mutagenic chain reactions) are attempts to develop such systems against mosquito species which can transmit malaria. The pathogen causing malaria is mainly plasmodium falciparum. The transmitter of that pathogen are mainly Anopheles mosquitos and specific sub-species. Typically, around 1% of an infected female mosquito population bears the pathogen and amplify it. After a bite of an infected mosquito a small number of the pathogen could cause the infection of a human. There starts a huge amplification process and finally the erothrocyts in the blood circulation of the human come under sever attack. Very few of the pathogen can transform in a way that a next biting mosquito can be infected again. The whole cycle endures roughly four weeks. Malaria is still endemic in many regions of the world. The most significant hot spots are located in Africa. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated in 2015 that still about 200 million humans are infected annually and about 400,000 death cases occur. (WHO 2015a) Malaria is regarded as one of the global challenges and was included in the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. One focus of the fight against malaria is “vector control”, that means the combat against malaria transmitting mosquito species. Hopes for a new technical tool are associated with gene drives which could effectively attack mosquito populations by circumventing the Mendelian heritage rules.1 The discovery of new gene scissor CRISPR-Cas9 has triggered a research boom also in this field. Gene drives could become extremely powerful tools for humans to make dramatic intentional or unintentional changes in populations and entire ecosystems – possibly on a global scale. Therefore, it is necessary to engage in appropriate procedures of science and technology assessment in good time before such technologies are mature. A group of colleagues – including me – have developed the concept of Prospective Technology Assessment (Liebert et al. 2005, Liebert/Schmidt 2010, Liebert/Schmidt 2015), which could guide the assessment in this case. Prospective Technology Assessment (ProTA) which is partly impossible without analysing the scientific-technological core can roughly be described as follows: • analysis of scientific-technological development at an early stage anticipating what might be relevant for science-based mid-term assessments and for (participatory) discourse inside and outside science • assessment of intentions, potentials, risks and unintended consequences, realistic potentials versus unrealistic visions and promises, uncertainties (and ignorance) • analysis/characterization of the type of technology involved 1 Cf. contributions of B.Giese and J.Frieß to the conference proceedings. 107