Name: How genetically engineered mice could help stop Lyme disease
Uploaded: 2025-10-07T16:39:18.724Z
Duration: 3 min 52 s
Description: As Lyme disease cases surge across the U.S., researchers on Nantucket, Massachusetts, are turning to genetic engineering to stop the ticks that transmit it.

As Lyme disease cases surge across the U.S., researchers on Nantucket, Massachusetts, are turning to genetic engineering to stop the ticks that transmit it.

Researchers in Massachusetts are investigating a novel approach to combat Lyme disease by genetically engineering white-footed mice to be immune to the bacteria that cause the illness. By using CRISPR technology to insert immunity genes at the embryonic stage, scientists hope to prevent the transmission of Lyme disease from mice to ticks, thereby interrupting the infection cycle.

The project, still in the planning stages, involves extensive community consultation and careful consideration of potential ecological consequences. Before any field trials, experiments would be conducted on isolated islands to monitor the effects on local ecosystems. The initiative is part of a broader effort to find sustainable solutions to the growing problem of tick-borne diseases.

How genetically engineered mice could help stop Lyme disease

You might know someone who got sick after getting bit by a tick. As tick populations grow, those illnesses are spreading. Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in America. And if left untreated, it can cause debilitating symptoms affecting the joints, heart, and nervous system. Our CBS News chief medical correspondent, Dr. John LePook, traveled to Nantucket, Massachusetts, on a 60-minutes assignment to meet with scientists who are genetically engineering mice. And they believe the rodents may hold the key to stopping the spread of Lyme disease. Watch this. Telford is tracking the mouse population on Nantucket as part of a novel project. The scientists want to use genetic engineering to interrupt the cycle of infection necessary for Lyme disease to flourish. White-footed mice are the main host of Lyme bacteria. When an uninfected tick bites an infected mouse, the bacteria transfer to the tick. When that infected tick then bites an uninfected mouse, the cycle continues. Dr. John LePook is here now. So, John, Dr. LePook. John, Dr. LePook. No, I couldn't possibly. Dr. LePook, explain how this could be the key to helping curb Lyme disease. So, you tend to think of deer ticks, right? So, the deer are somehow involved, right? Well, the deer are just really, they provide a blood meal for the ticks, for the baby ticks. And also transportation, they move them all over the place. The real key, as you saw in the animation, is the white-tailed mouse. And to do it again slowly, because this is like new stuff for people to try to understand is, and don't tell me which got infected first. We don't know which got infected first, but you have an infected mouse and is bitten by an uninfected tick. Now, that's how the tick gets infected. Then the tick bites an uninfected mouse, and then the mouse gets infected, and the circle and the cycle continues. So, these scientists, Kevin Esvelt at MIT, Joanna Buchthall, and Sam Telford at Tufts, right? And at MIT, there's the Sculpting Evolution Lab, and they have this project, Mice Against Ticks. And the idea is, if they can use genetic engineering, CRISPR, to insert right at the two-embryo stage of the mouse in the lab, a gene that makes that mouse immune to Lyme, immune to Lyme, born immune, and the children of the mouse are also gonna be immune. Now, you're gonna interrupt that cycle, because there's nowhere for the ticks to spread the disease in the mouse, right? And it gets broken. If you know anything about Lyme disease, you like the idea of stopping Lyme disease. But if you've thought a little bit about genetic engineering, maybe you love it, maybe you have worries about it. So, talk about that. Yeah, perfect. And I said to him, aren't you worried about fooling around with Mother Nature? He said, absolutely. And that's why they're doing it very, very carefully. So, they go to Nantucket. They've had 10 meetings. We were at one of these town hall meetings, and they're discussing, well, what are the pros and what are the cons? What could possibly happen? And I said, couldn't you, by somehow affecting the food chain, have it so that the bald eagle gets extinct? And he said, well, they don't think so, because the mouse, you never know. Unintended, I don't think that's gonna happen. But you have these unintended consequences. They're thinking very hard about it. You had people in Nantucket saying, well, yeah, it's part of the food chain. And all these very smart questions. And what Kevin Esvelt is saying, he's so smart, he said, even if they decide we're not gonna do this experiment, they're not doing it yet. And if they do do it, it's gonna be on an isolated island, not even Nantucket, an isolated island where the mice can't get off, because the mice tend to get on and off when you don't realize it. See what happens to the ecosystem there, and then come back and maybe consider doing it. We're talking about years away, and who knows, maybe there'll be a Lyme vaccine before then. But I really loved how thoughtful everybody was and saying, you know what, let's hear what the, rather than saying, we've had this idea, and we're doing it to you, let's all talk about how we can think about this. It's giving the community a voice in the process too. Dr. Suk, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

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