What are gene drives? What are their potential applications? How can risks and benefits be managed?
There are calls for a moratorium on gene drive research under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Our statement explains what gene drives are, how they can potentially be applied and why we believe that a moratorium would be premature and research should be able to continue.
We are also working with the UK’s Wellcome Trust and the African Academy of Sciences to organise a side event on synthetic biology (PDF) at the Fourteenth Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in November 2018. This will give delegates the opportunity to find out more about the research, application and established governance processes for this area of science.
This statement is also available in Chinese - 这份声明还有中文版本
UN-Conference-Statement_zh-CN