Birth of first genetically edited babies using CRISPR tools stirs global outrage

By PharmaCompass

2018-11-29

Impressions: 136 Article

A Chinese researcher — He Jiankui — claimed he has created the first-ever genetically edited babies using CRISPR/Cas9 tools that have now become a common feature in labs around the world. The twins’ embryos have been genetically engineered with CRISPR to decommission CCR5, a gene used by HIV as a backdoor into a cell, He said.

“Two beautiful Chinese girls named Lulu and Nana came crying into the world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago,” the Shenzhen-based researcher said in a YouTube video.

He’s project involved couples in which the men had HIV but the women did not. The goal was to prevent their children from getting HIV.

The news created a stir across scientific circles the world over. The Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, with which He is affiliated, issued a statement saying it was “deeply shocked” and unaware of his research project which they consider a “serious violation of academic ethics and standards.” The university added He has been on leave without pay since February.

He is now under investigation by various bodies in China for possibly breaking ethics rules.

The news about Lulu and Nana came ahead of an international conference on gene editing in Hong Kong this week. He said he had altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. The legitimacy of the project is also being investigated.

He said the twin girls are now at home with their parents. Their father is HIV-positive and did not want to pass his infection to his offspring.

MIT Technology Review’s Antonio Regalado pointed out that there are easier and cheaper ways to prevent HIV infection, or indeed suppress it. Editing embryos during IVF will also be expensive and involve technology out of reach for poorer sections of the world, where HIV is quite prevalent.

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