Alarm in the scientific community: the Chinese researcher who "played God"

According to He Jiankui on his Youtube channel, the genetic change was to "disable" the CCR5 gene, which forms a protein that HIV uses as a gateway for the infection of human cells. The change would have provided babies with resistance to possible infection. The parents of the girls are carriers of the virus, but the possibility that they have been infected is very low and in any case the current drug could have been avoided.

He Jiankui said that the experiment was working properly and that "more details will be published", but the news has already caused the amazement of the scientific community, even in his own country. The reasons why, on the one hand, a technique used without any guarantee in humans opens the door to eugenics, although He Jiankui says that he only wished the girls did not do not fall sick – both babies were healthy – and on the other hand artificially introduced a mutation whose consequences are unknown and which will inherit their offspring.

His own university has announced an investigation into what they consider to be a "serious violation of ethics and academic standards". And a hundred Chinese scientists have condemned this experience that undermines "the reputation of Chinese science": "Jump directly on human experiences with this technique can only be described as crazy," they say.

The CRISPR / Cas9 technique, used by him and his team for mutation, is well known to genetic experts around the world, but has never been used in live embryos to be implanted. It's a technology that allows you to cut and paste DNA relatively easily. The use of this technique in humans is prohibited in the United States and Europe because of the ethical doubts it raises and the immature character of the research. In China, however, there is no legal prohibition.

Unpredictable consequences for girls

Researchers who sound the alarm bells about the experience first warn about the risks badociated with an investigation involving the use of two babies as "guinea pigs".

"If that is true, this experience is monstrous," says Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Practice Ethics Center at Oxford University. "It's a Russian genetic roulette," he says in statements collected by.

Joyce Harper, an expert at University College London, also warns of the dangers of this research: "Editing the human genome is now premature, dangerous and irresponsible," warns. And he points out that it takes years of research to make sure that touching the human genome will not cause any harm, present or future.