4 June 2021 / What is a gene drive? The NSW Government has funded a genetic biocontrol solution to the current mouse plague. What does it all mean? Credit: Tetra Images/Getty Images As part of its $50 million mouse control package, announced in May, the NSW Government yesterday committed $1.8 million to “breakthrough genetic biocontrol research” – a three-year program to identify “fast-acting gene drives”. What does that mean? Sometimes a population of animals becomes problematically large, leading to rampant disease or plague: reference the current mouse plague. One way of curbing the population is to use genetic technology, such as a gene drive. A gene drive is a process that pushes certain genes to be inherited in populations when two organisms breed.