Babies with genes edited to resist HIV, have allegedly been born in China, scientist He Jiankui claims.
These would be the world’s first genetically-edited babies if true. However there seems to be many holes in the story.
He Jiankui claims that he used the CRISPR/Cas9 tool to manipulate the genes of the along with help from American scientist Michael Deem, that a successful pregnancy resolved with the birth of twins. But the hospital that He claims to work under denies all the statements.
A spokesperson for Shenzhen HarMoniCare Women’s and Children’s Hospital told TechCrunch that, “What we can say for sure is that the gene editing process did not take place at our hospital. The babies were not born here either.”
He has also never had his work published in a peer-reviewed science journal, so there is no conformation of his research.
U.S. experts have already spoken out against the project as “unconscionable” and “immoral and unethical.” Which is reminiscent of outcry in 2015 when China genetically-modified human embryos to remove the HBB gene responsible for a fatal blood disorder.
