The New York Times reports (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/science/crispr-mosquito-vision.html) on the work by Yinpeng Zhan et al in Current Biology 2021 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34331858/) reporting the use of CRISPR to create the first mosquitoes that cannot see hosts.

KCBX radio (NPR) interviewed Craig Montell on June 9, 2021 (https://www.kcbx.org/post/ucsb-gene-editing-mosquitos-could-fight-disease-raises-ethical-environmental-questions#stream/0) on the breakthrough in using gene-editing CRISPR-Cas9 technology to create sterile male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. This method of targeting a specific gene tied to fertility in male mosquitoes — called “sterile insect technique,” or SIT — could control the population of Aedes aegypti without pesticides.

Text of NIH Director's writeup:

It’s a problem that parents know all too well: a child won’t eat because their oatmeal is too slimy or a slice of apple is too hard. Is the kid just being finicky? Or is there a biological basis for disliking food based on its texture? This image, showing the tongue (red) of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), provides some of the first evidence that biology could indeed play a role [1].

Nicole Leung is the 2016 winner of the UCSB Grad Slam. Please see: http://www.gradpost.ucsb.edu/top-stories/top-stories-article/2016/04/16/2016-grad-slam-final-round-and-the-winner-is