Following studies of P element transferability in related species of drosophilids, he utilized the piggyBac transposon to transform pest tephritids including the Caribbeanfruit fly (Anastrepha suspensa), Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) and oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis). He has since proposed new Conditional Autocidal techniques that promise to replace the irradiation of males, a means of inducing sterility that can seriously degrade the sexual performance of insects destined for SIT mass-releases. Recently, Dr. Handler has turned his attention to eliminating the possibility of inadvertent horizontal transfer of exotic genes into non-target, populations and species. This danger has been a principal obstacle to the more widespread use of genetically modified insects in biologically-based control programs and its removal could contribute to a genetic-transformation renaissance in the field of entomology. He and colleagues have applied for a patent for a novel method of immobilizing transposons and so locking transferred genes into their new genome ("Systems for gene targeting and producing stable genomic transgene insertions").