Welcome to the Gantz lab.
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We use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model to understand and implement Active Genetics technologies.   

Gene Drive Technologies

We have a broad interest in developing and pursuing gene drive technologies in the fruit fly, as well as genetic strategies to control and reverse the spread of RNA-guided gene drives. The PI contributed to the very first proof-of-principle of a CRISPR-based gene-drive system in a multicellular organism (Drosophila melanogaster), which was termed the Mutagenic Chain Reaction (MCR) as the genetic dynamics should, in a population, mirror the exponential DNA amplification of PCR reactions. In collaboration with the James lab at UC Irvine, the project progressed to demonstrate the practical application of this technology to combat the spread of malaria by generating a gene-drive cassette capable of spreading plasmodium resistance genes in entire mosquito populations (Anopheles stephensi). The drive component that was developed showed a remarkable super-Mendelian inheritance propagating to 99.5% of the progeny. Given this foundational work we plan to understand the fine mechanism that allows CRISPR-based gene drives to function, this would, on the one hand, allow the optimization of their functionality for future field application, while on the other hand, have control over their potency and safety.

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Development and Evolution​

A parallel line  of research in the lab focuses on studying the workings of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) underlying fruit fly development and understanding what changes in such GRNs have led, through evolution, to the astonishing variety of natural diversity of fly lineage.