[ad_1]
Controversy and doubt is the reaction to the announcement that a Chinese scientist would have created the first genetically modified babies in the world resistant to certain diseases through the genetic modification technique. CRISPR.
The controversy began when specialized publications such as the American magazine MIT Technology Review echoed the study of scientist He Jiankui, who began yesterday to broadcast videos on Youtube in which claimed to have modified the genes of twins.
Chinese researcher Lulu and Nana, "were born healthy a few weeks ago," thanks to in vitro fertilization with genetic modification technology "that will prevent them from being infected by the HIV ".
In these videos, I claimed to have used the CRISPR / Cas9 technique and justified the experiment by stating that genetic modification "was not intended to eliminate genetic diseases ", but" to give girls the natural ability to resist possible HIV infection ".
To achieve his goal, He claims to have "disabled" the CCR5 gene, which forms a protein that allows HIV to enter a cell and is in practice a DNA enhancement.
"I understand that my work is controversial, but I believe that families need this technology and I am willing to accept criticism for them," he says in one of the videos.
However, the University of Science and Technology South of Shenzhen City today challenged his teacher in a statement and pointed out that it was not even aware of this. The institution said it felt "deeply shocked by the case" and urged it, on leave since February this year, to come as soon as possible to give explanations.
"The University will meet experts to investigate this incident, which is a serious violation of ethics and academic standards" said the institution on the project , which also raised questions about its veracity, because to date has not been published in any scientific magazine
For its part, the Chinese press today acknowledged that the study had sparked controversy between academics and the public across the country.
The China Daily newspaper reported concerns "for ethical reasons and for its effectiveness" and reveals that the parents of the two babies are people living with HIV, citing Bai Hua, chief of Baihualin, a non-governmental organization that cares for people with this disease,
Meanwhile, more than 120 scholars from the Chinese scientific community have pointed out in a statement published on Sina Weibo, Chinese equivalent of Twitter, that "any attempt" to modify embryos Human ions resulting from genetic modifications are "crazy", and giving birth to these babies carries "high risk."
"The government must take quick legislative action to strictly supervise this research," the scientists added. Chinese
The controversy also comes a day before researchers in this field begin an important meeting on genome modification, to be held from 27 to 29 November in Hong Kong.
Overall, the Nature magazine also joined the debate today and states in an article that this announcement caused an "indignation" within the international scientific community and that, if this were true , "would represent a major leap in the use of human genome modification."
"He is premature, dangerous and irresponsible", Joyce Harper, researcher at the University College London, told this publication. [19659] 007] "This experience exposes normal and healthy children to risks without real benefit," says the magazine.
Nature emphasizes that this type of tool has not been used until now to study its advantages for the elimination of mutations. because of diseases and adds that the scientific community "has long called for" the creation of ethical principles long before such cases arise.
In 2016, a group of Chinese scientists became a pioneer in using in humans, especially in patients with lung cancer, CRISPR genetic modification technology, reported by Nature magazine .
However, British scientists discovered that CRISPR gene editing technology could cause more damage. to the cells of what we believed up to now, according to a study published this year by the same newspaper.
[ad_2]
Source link
