:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2018/D/k/gS4fNaT6WzEGuIBixdGA/chines.jpg)
[ad_1]
He Jiankui, the Chinese researcher who announced the genetic montage of twins, is stuck in an apartment in Shenzhen, China. The information comes from the American newspaper "The New York Times", which published a photo of the scientist on the balcony of a university building at the end of December. According to the newspaper, he is in the custody of "a dozen unidentified men".
He had disappeared since the end of November. He was last seen when he spoke at a science event in Hong Kong.
At the time, the local press suspected the researcher of being under house arrest. The Southern University of Science and Technology, where the researcher worked, denied the allegations.
His research was announced on November 26 and provoked a negative reaction from the international scientific community.
The Chinese researcher said he has modified the genes of twins born with resistance to HIV infection. The study has not been published in scientific journals. The names of the people involved – mother, babies, researchers involved – have not been revealed.
He says he has altered the genes of babies with the help of Crispr, a genetic editing technique that is the subject of intense ethical debate around the world.
Crispr arrived about six years ago. Since then, scientific journals and international organizations have debated the possibilities of advancing the human genetic code. The editing technique is simple and inexpensive, and what can, according to science, make a revolution.
Scientists have discovered how to "cut" some of the DNA with the help of an enzyme in the bacterial defense system. Researchers use Cas9 with a "guide" RNA to modify the part of interest to the DNA.
The G1 showed that the announcement of Chinese who had altered the DNA of babies had provoked protests from scientists around the world. According to experts, this has undermined ethics, laws, security and unpredictable consequences.
"At the moment we are certain that Crispr only works on this gene, everything is fine, so we will use Crispr and avoid the genes that create a problem." Said geneticist Mayana Zatz, director of the Research Center on the human genome of the USP. We are not there yet. We are walking, but we are not there yet, "said geneticist Mayana Zatz.
Source link
