China Opens Research on Genetically Modified Babies | Technology



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China has ordered the opening of an investigation to verify the claims of a Chinese scientist claiming to have created the first genetically modified babies in history, act described as "madness" by many researchers .

Jiankui, a professor at the University of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province, announced in a YouTube video on Monday the birth "a few weeks ago" of two twins including DNA has been modified to make them more resistant to the HIV virus. (AIDS).

"We have asked the health authorities of Guangdong Province to immediately open an in-depth investigation to establish the facts" reacted Monday evening the National Health Commission, which has great significance "for this question

The announcement of He Jiankui has provoked a wave of criticism from the world's scientific community, even at the very center of the researcher, the University of Science and Technology of the South, which the authorized and declared "deeply shocked."

The geneticist, trained at Stanford University in the United States, who runs a special laboratory on the genome of Shenzhen, explains that using the CRISPR / Cas9 technique, "genomic scissors." It allows the removal and replacement of unwanted parts of the genome, as if it were to correct a typo in a computer.

The Lulu and Nana twins are born of a in vitro fertilization of modified embryos before implantation in the mother's womb. 19659002] This self-proclaimed medical scoop was not corroborated as the results of the Chinese team were not published in a scientific journal.

More than 100 Chinese scientists, mainly biologists and doctors, lamented in a statement "an insanity," which badumes "a severe blow to the global reputation and development of biomedical research in China." [19659008] (function (d, s, id) {
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