[ad_1]
His team, from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, used the versatile genetic engineering tool CRISPR to modify the girls’ DNA to be resistant to HIV infection.
It is unclear whether he plans to return to scientific research in China or elsewhere. Those who knew him described the Rice University and Stanford-trained biophysicist as idealistic, naive, and ambitious.
Before his world around him collapsed, he believed he had created a new way to “contain the HIV epidemic,” for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
existence CRISPR baby project It was revealed by MIT Technology Review on the eve of an international genome editing summit held in Hong Kong in November 2018. Following our report, she immediately posted several videos on YouTube announcing the birth of the twins she named Lula and Nana.
The experiment was met with fierce condemnation around the world and within China. The use of genome editing serves little medical purpose and can lead to errors in the girls’ genomes, the scientists said.
The description of the experiments was not published in any scientific journal. MIT Technology Review later received draft copies of his articleAs experts say, “appalling scientific and ethical delays”
The researcher spent a little over two years behind bars, in addition to spending several months under the surveillance of authorities at home. Since his release, he has been in contact with members of his scientific network in China and abroad.
While he and other Chinese team members are responsible for the experiment, other scientists may know and encourage the project. Among them are Michael Deem, a former professor at Rice University who participated in the experiment, and John Zhang, head of a large IVF clinic in New York. plans to commercialize the technology.
Deem left his position at Rice in 2020, but the university has not published any findings or explanations regarding his role in the creation of the dolls. Deem’s LinkedIn profile now lists employment at an energy consulting firm he started.
“Extraordinary and extraordinary [He Jiankui] and some of his colleagues were imprisoned for this experiment,” says Eben Kirksey, associate professor at the Alfred Deakin Institute in Australia and author of the book. The Mutant Project, a book containing interviews with some participants about He’s experiment. “At the same time, many [his] International collaborators like Michael Deem and John Zhang were never sanctioned or formally censored for their participation.”
“In many ways, justice has not been served,” Kirksey says.
He paid the heaviest price. He was fired from his job at the university, separated from his wife and young children, and spent time in a prison far from his hometown of Shenzhen.
His punishment certainly seems to have delayed further experimentation in China on gene editing for making babies. In the US, the procedure is de facto prohibited by law, which prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from approving such a study.
There is also the question of justice for the three children born as a result of the experiment, whose identities have not been revealed. Their parents agreed to participate in the experiment because each of their fathers had HIV and otherwise would not have had access to IVF according to Chinese rules.
Two top Chinese bioethicists appealed to the Chinese government, according to a report published in Nature in February. Creating a research program to audit the health of CRISPR children. They classified the children as the “vulnerable group” and called for genetic analyzes to determine whether their bodies contain genetic errors that they can pass on to future generations.
Kirskey said study participants were not treated fairly. They were promised health insurance plans for their children, but “no insurance plans were made and medical bills were not paid,” he said amid the controversy.
[ad_2]
Source link