Chinese scientist announces first genetically modified babies

A Chinese scientist announced the birth of the first genetically modified babies, a case with profound medical and ethical implications that has already been strongly rejected by the global scientific community.

"Two beautiful Chinese girls, Lulu and Nana, came into the world a few weeks ago crying and as healthy as another baby," He Jiankui said in a video posted on YouTube Sunday.

According to He, genetic modification of embryos was performed with the new CRISPR-Cas9 technique, with the aim of making infants resistant to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

The researcher from the Southern University of Science and Technology said that the genetic modification had been effective and that only one gene had been modified to prevent HIV infection.

The identity of the babies and their parents was kept secret, but according to He, the father is HIV-positive and wanted to prevent their children from being discriminated against.

At present, there is no scientific publication on the intervention announced by He, but only an entry in a Chinese registry of clinical trials.

The announcement has already generated many negative reactions.

More than 120 Chinese scientists today condemned the announcement of Jiankui in an open letter. Experiencing human beings is a "madness" and has serious potential consequences, says an open letter signed by scientists from different institutions, including Tsinghua University, Beijing and Fudan University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"These irreversible changes in human genetic material, which are very uncertain in science, will inevitably mingle with the human genetic group," the letter says.

"It is possible that babies born are healthy for a while, but the risks and potential damage to the human group (…) are incalculable," the letter added.

They also regret that the experimentation "seriously undermines the world reputation of Chinese science" and call on the inspection authorities to act as quickly as possible and to conduct an investigation into the case.

"The Pandora's box has been opened and we may close it before the damage is irreparable," they warn.

One of the discoverers of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique, American Jennifer Doudna, also criticized He's announcement.

"If they are verified, these works break with the precautions and the transparent approach to the application of the CRISPR-Cas9 global scientific community," said Doudna, professor of chemistry and molecular biology and cell at the University of California at Berkeley.

Doudna said his research has not been published or peer reviewed by the scientific community yet. The researcher is in Hong Kong to attend the summit on human genomics, which he also plans to attend.

"Assuming that a scientific badysis confirms the actuality of today, this work confirms the urgent need to limit the use of genetic modification in human embryos to scenarios in which there is a clear unmet medical need and in which another medical approach is not feasible, "he said.

"It is important to continue a public and transparent discussion on the many uses of genetic modification technology," he added. The American researcher is convinced that this announcement "will not cast an inappropriate shadow" on the CRISPR-Cas9 technology and research that could one day be used "to treat and cure genetic, infectious and common diseases in adults and children .

The CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism was discovered almost three decades ago. In 2003, the Spanish microbiologist Francisco Martínez Mojica discovered that it was a mechanism used by microorganisms to defend against viruses. They do this by cutting the genetic material of the viruses and incorporating this material into their own DNA, a procedure in which the Cas9 protein acts as a genetic chisel.

The discovery of Mojica was at the base of Doudna's research and the French researcher Emmanuelle Charpentier to artificially reproduce, several years later, the system and its installation in 2012 that can be used to modify precisely the genome, including that of l & # 39; man.