VIDEO: The first twins are born with a modified DNA, immunized against HIV, but the act is considered "irresponsible"

This fact provoked ethical criticism for an act considered "dangerous" and "irresponsible"

. A Chinese researcher said Monday that he had undergone in vitro fertilization with modified genes giving rise to twins resistant to the AIDS virus. Announcement that provoked ethical criticism for an act considered "dangerous" and "irresponsible".

He Jiankui, a professor at the University of Shenzhen in southern China, posted on YouTube a video announcing the birth of two twins a few weeks ago. whose DNA has been modified to resist the AIDS virus. He said the father was HIV positive.

"Genetic scissors"

The researcher, trained at Stanford in the United States and heading a genome laboratory in Shenzhen, explained that he had used the Crispr-Cas9 technique, called "genetic scissors" ", which replaces unwanted parts of the genome when a computer error is corrected.

Babies, called "Lula" and "Nana", are born from the in vitro fertilization of a modified embryo before being implanted in the uterus.

"Just after injecting the husband's sperm into the egg, an embryologist injected a Crispr-Cas9 protein to modify a gene to protect the girls from future HIV infection," explained He Jiankui. ] This self-proclaimed medical event has not yet been independently verified. The results of the Chinese team have not been published in a scientific journal.

"Announcing these results in a video on YouTube is a very problematic scientific practice," said Nicholas Evans, professor of philosophy at the University of Mbadachusetts Lowell, United States. , who works on bioethics issues.

"This takes us away from the control processes on which many scientific advances, such as peer badessment, are based," he added, questioned by AFP.

According to Sarah Chan of the University of Edinburgh, cited by the Science Media Center, the issue raises "serious ethical problems".

"It is irresponsible to make such statements, apparently to deliberately seek as much controversy as possible (…)" He added.

He Jiankui did not immediately answer questions from AFP.

His announcement comes on the eve of a global conference of Genome experts from Hong Kong during which the researcher must present his findings in detail.