China investigates the legality of genetic modification in babies against AIDS



[ad_1]

Beijing, November 27 (Prensa Latina) A team from the National Health Commission of China is studying the legality of a controversial experiment in which two genetically modified babies were born to make them resistant to HIV-AIDS in the southern province of Guangdong.

Research is underway at the University of Science and Technology and at the HarMoniCare maternal and pediatric hospital of Shenzhen City to check whether, in these places, the test has actually been conducted with the authorization of the respective authorities.

The commission ordered after the controversy that erupted in recent hours inside and outside the country after experiencing the experience that led the scientist He Jiankui Chinese and his team to the discussion. The Lulu and Nana twins were born in perfect health several weeks ago, after using a technique called Crispr-Cas9 to mutate a gene and make it resistant to Rus causative of AIDS.

This procedure, also known as "genetic scissors", removes and replaces unwanted parts of the genome in the same way that a computer error is corrected.

According to He, the babies are born from the in vitro fertilization of a modified embryo before being implanted in the mother's womb.

Just after injecting the husband's sperm into the egg, an embryologist injected Crispr-Cas9 protein to modify a gene to protect the girls against future HIV infection. he explained.

However, the fact alarmed the population and the scientific community because it violated the ethical questions, because it had been demonstrated that this type of change was transmitted to other generations. [19659002] He Jiankui has previously unveiled it formally and in detail at a world-wide expert conference on the genome in Hong Kong, but after the criticism is isolated and it is unclear whether Entrera will in the appointment.

Even, the hospital and the university where the experiment would have been developed would have been separated from the event.

[ad_2]
Source link