China opens research on genetically modified babies

BEIJING (AFP) .- China has ordered the opening of an investigation to verify the claims of a Chinese scientist claiming to have created the first
Genetically modified babies from history, an act described as "madness" by many researchers.

He Jiankui, a professor at Shenzhen University, Guangdong Province, South, announced
a video posted on YouTube about the birth "a few weeks ago" of two twins whose DNA has been modified to make them more resistant to the AIDS virus.

"We have asked the health authorities of Guangdong Province to immediately open an in-depth investigation to establish the facts," reacted the National Health Commission Monday night, stating "to attach great importance" to this question.

The announcement of He Jiankui has provoked a wave of criticism from the global scientific community, including the researcher's own center, the University of Science and Technology of the South, which authorized him and is declared "deeply shocked".

The geneticist, trained at Stanford University in the United States and who runs a special laboratory on the genome in Shenzhen, explains that he used the CRISPR / Cas9 technique, the "genomic scissors". It can remove and replace unwanted parts of the genome, as if you correct a typo in a computer.

The Lulu and Nana binoculars are born after the in vitro fertilization of modified embryos before their implantation in the belly of the mother.

This self-proclaimed medical scoop has not been corroborated as the results of the Chinese team have not been published in a scientific journal.

More than 100 Chinese scientists, mainly biologists and doctors, lamented in a statement "a madness", which is "a blow to the global reputation and development of biomedical research in China".