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MEXICO CITY (AP) – A Chinese scientist claims to have helped create the first genetically modified babies by modifying their DNA, hoping to immunize them against the AIDS virus and other diseases.
The information has provoked controversy since it was announced Sunday. Part of the scientific community has made ethical objections to this investigation, while journalists have found data that would question its veracity.
The MIT Technology Review website, published by the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology, published a note on Sunday. in which he reveals, citing two Chinese medical reports, that a university team from Shenzen City had recruited couples in the expectation of a baby in order to create the first children with disabilities. a genetic verification system by in vitro fertilization.
I would use a powerful tool invented in China since 2015 called CRISPR, inexpensive and easy to apply. The intention was to eliminate a gene called CCR5, in the hope of making the offspring resistant to HIV, smallpox and cholera.
MIT magazine says it made contact with He Jiankui, the scientist responsible for this effort, who refused to say whether a live birth had been achieved, even though the data presented in the reports show that genetic testing was done on fetuses for up to 24 weeks or six months.
However, after the release of this information, Note that the US agency The Associated Press (AP) released a comprehensive report in which, according to He Jiankui himself, a couple was able to give birth this month a pair of twins with altered DNA thanks to the new tool able to rewrite the original project of life.
In his office and in a video on YouTube, AP revealed the interviews He Jiankui himself had given him before the celebration of the Second International Summit on Human Rights. The human genome, which will begin Tuesday in Hong Kong
According to the news agency, the researcher claimed to have modified the embryos of seven couples during fertility treatments and to have had a pregnancy.
Its purpose was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to give a characteristic that few people naturally have: the ability to withstand a future infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
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AP revealed that an American scientist, Michael Deem, had admitted to having participated in genetic modification work in China, banned in the United States as DNA modifications may to be pbaded on to future generations and to the risk of other genes being damaged
Rice University, Texas, announced on Monday that it had opened an extensive investigation into the implication of this case in Deem, He Jiankui's counselor when he left this house. studies.
"No matter where it was done, this work, as described in the press reports, violates patterns of scientific behavior and is incompatible with the ethical standards of the scientific community and Rice University." said the institution in a statement.
The parents concerned refused to be identified or interviewed, and will not reveal where they live or where the work was done.
AP He could not confirm his claims independently, any more than they were published in a scientific journal where they would be examined by other experts.
In his interview with the US agency, he stated that he felt "a strong responsibility that is not only to do something for the first time, but also to give the For example, "The company will decide what to do to authorize or prohibit such scientific advances," he added.
The AP cable includes interviews with scientists who expressed their astonishment after hearing the statement and condemning it.
It is "inconceivable … an experience in humans that is neither morally nor ethically defensible," said Dr. Kiran Musunuru, expert in genetic editing at the University of Pennsylvania and editor of a genetics journal.
"It's too early," he said. Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. "We are dealing with the way a human being is used.It is a very big thing."
However, a famous geneticist, George Church of Harvard University, defended the attempt of genetic verification of HIV, which he defined as "a growing and important threat to public health". 19659002] "I think it's justifiable," said Church about this goal.
Following the publication of the AP Office, the Techcrunch website published a note from his journalist Rita Liao, who contacted a hospital representative who would have approved the study . from He Jiankui and who denied any connection with this case.
"What we can say for sure is that the process of checking for genes was not done in our hospital, babies are not born here either," notes the note. from Techcrunch, who adds that the hospital is also reviewing the validity of the documents related to the study.
AP had revealed that He Jiankui had received the approval of HarMoniCare maternity. your experience One of the documents published by MIT magazine indicates that the medical ethics committee of this clinic has given its approval.
However, the spokesperson consulted by Techcrunch denied that HarMoniCare has any connection whatsoever with this case.
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