Trials on the Genetically Modified (GM) mosquito engineered by researchers at the University of Oxford to control dengue/chikungunya are under way at a laboratory near Chennai. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, gave permission to conduct the evaluation in India. It is in progress at the International Institute of Biotechnology And Toxicology (IIBAT) at Padappai near Chennai. The trials have reached the second stage. ”It is a promising technology which deploys genetically sterile Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes to fight the disease-causing ones,” S.S. Vasan, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Head of Public Health, Oxitec (Oxford Insect Technologies).