Philipp Messer, Andy Clark and I have a new paper out in Genetics about the evolution of resistance to gene drives (specifically CRISPR drives). Philipp should get most of the credit for this work. In the paper, we find that resistance is almost inevitable in a simple, single gRNA gene drive system. Our results build on several previous papers showing resistance was likely, by using the branching process machinery derived by Uecker and Hermisson (2011 - here) for the probability of fixation of alleles in changing environments. After the paper was accepted, I contacted Kent Smith, a friend who I met at the Lawrence Library Lego Club, about designing a cover. He took the idea and ran with it and now we have "The Attack of the 50 Foot Mosquito," quite a departure from the standard Genetics cover!
Kent Smith's cover art
