Oxitec

Oxitec is a UK-based, US-owned biotechnology company that develops genetically modified insects in order to improve public health and food security through insect control. The insects act as biological insecticides. Insects are controlled without the use of chemical insecticides. Instead, the insects are genetically engineered to be unable to produce offspring. The company claims that this technology is more effective than insecticides and more environmentally friendly. Oxitec was founded in 2002 as Oxford Insect Technologies in the United Kingdom by Luke Alphey and David Kelly, working with Oxford University's Isis Innovation technology transfer company. In August 2015, Oxitec was purchased by U.S.-based Intrexon for $160 million, and by US-based Third Security in early 2020. The company's first engineered insect was the pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella). It was experimentally released in Arizona in 2006. It then modified Aedes egyptii, followed by a series of field trials in multiple countries. Grey Frandsen was appointed CEO in 2017. He is an American who led start-up initiatives in the U.S. government and the private and non-profit sectors on matters relating to national and global public health security, biotechnology and crisis response. Frandsen led the company's transition to its 2nd generation technology in 2018. During the 2010s, Oxitec established partnerships with agricultural industry leaders and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Frandsen was named one of Malaria No More's 10-to-End innovators in 2019. Genetically modified insect Oxitec's original insight was that genetically modifying insects could disrupt their ability to reproduce and over time, reduce their populations. Oxitec has developed genetically modified versions of A. aegypti, P. gossypiella. Its OX513A strain alters males to produce protein tTA, which negatively affects cell development. OX5034 male offspring survive, allowing mating cycles that further reduce the population. In each generation fewer males pass on their self-limiting genes.