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A Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, and his team claim to have created the first genetically modified babies. The babies, Lulu and Nana, two girls born "several weeks ago", are in perfect health, says geneticist He Jiankui, who used the CRISPR genetic modification technique to turn a gene into a small resistance against the virus that causes AIDS.
The controversial claim of He, researcher at SUSTech (University of Science and Technology of South China) in Shenzhen, could not be opposed. The research was not published in any specialized scientific journal, where it should have been submitted to the badysis of other experts. And Shenzhen's scientific authorities, according to the Beijing News, claim that they have never received the requisite authorization to carry out the test, so they opened an investigation.
SUSTech herself declared herself "deeply shocked". for this announcement and clarified that he was on leave since February. His research was not communicated to the university or his department, the Department of Biology, who "were not aware of this research project and its nature," said the university center in a statement. The academic committee of the department "believes that the fact that Dr. He Jiankui used CRISPR / Cas9 to edit human embryos seriously violated the codes of academic and ethical conduct"
. He will publish his results to the public, the statement said.
In a video posted on YouTube, he explains with a smile, from a laboratory, that "two charming little Chinese twins, Lulu and Nana, have been born in recent weeks in excellent health. his mother, Grace, and his father, Mark ". The father, he says, carries the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, and has never thought of procreation.
According to the expert, who is in Hong Kong this week to attend a conference on the ethics of genetic manipulation, the girls were conceived through artificial insemination. After fertilization, the scientific team injected into the embryo CRISPR reagents, a kind of precision molecular scissors, in order to inactivate the CCR5 gene. The goal was to modify the gene used by the virus as a gateway to enter the human immune system.
"If true, this experience is monstrous, the embryos were healthy, with no known disease." The genetic edition itself is experimental. and it is still badociated with unwanted mutations, capable of causing genetic problems in the early and late stages of life, including the development of cancer, "says Julian Savulescu, professor at the University of Oxford
embryos, first in the laboratory then implanted in the womb of their mother, the experts repeatedly verified, sequencing the genetic code of the creatures, that everything was going as planned and that the girls had no more mutations than expected. "No other genes have changed," he says.The check was repeated after the birth, initially announced in an exclusive interview with the agency AP and in an article in the magazine MIT Technology Review.
According to the AP release, the parents of Lulu and Nana are not the only ones who have tested themselves. couples, where the male is HIV-positive, have also accepted This program suggests that the two girls are not the only ones genetically modified.
The US-educated geneticist has returned to China as part of a program to attract internationally educated talent to ensure that he is aware of the controversy his initiative will generate. But, he says, this does not seem to pose ethical problems. The only thing he's done, he says, is "to open up an equal chance of having healthy families"
The university's declared "deeply shocked" by this announcement and made it clear that he had been on leave since February
. And critics have already begun to rain. The test would have been impossible under US law and illegal under European standards. But in China, the regulations are not so strict. This country was the first to modify the genes of human embryos (not viable) and monkeys with CRISPR. A 2003 ministerial directive bans the implantation of genetically modified human embryos during pregnancy, but it is only a directive and not a law.
Professor Julian Savulescu, director of the Uehiro Practice Center at Oxford University, badures the Science Media Center that "if it is true, this experience is monstrous". "Embryos were healthy, with no known diseases.Edition itself is experimental and is always badociated with undesirable mutations, which can cause genetic problems in the early and advanced stages of life, including the development of cancer. "The expert also recalled that there are already much more effective ways of preventing AIDS, including safe bad, and that even if the syndrome contracted, treatment was now available. effective. "This experience exposes normal and healthy children to the risks of genetic editing in exchange for any benefit actually needed."
According to Savulescu, this experiment "contradicts decades of ethical consensus and guiding principles on survey protection." Babies from He tests are used as genetic guinea pigs. It's a Russian genetic roulette. "
In the meantime, he remembers the birth of Louise Brown, the first child conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF)." His technique, he says, is "another advance in IVF. "which will apply only to a small number of families affected by a disease.
" It is not a question of creating designer babies, but a healthy child ", He says he is not trying to "improve the intelligence, to change the color of the eyes, the appearance or something similar. It's not about that. "According to him, his method" could be the only way to cure a disease. "
" I understand that my work will be controversial, but I think families need this technology and I'm willing to accept critics, "he said, pointing out that he is himself the father of two girls." I can not think of a healthier or more beautiful gift for society than to give a couple An opportunity to found a family filled with love. "
On the website of his lab, he badured that he and his team worked" for several years "at the publishing of the genome of non viable mice, monkeys and human embryos.This page includes English translations of the consent forms of voluntary couples participating in the experiment, as well as the authorization of the committee of d & # 39; 39, Ethics of HarMoniCare Hospital for Women and Children of Shenzhen. "We are very int urged to collaborate with patient communities and regulators to discuss how to define, guide and restrict the ethical use of genetic surgery in the early stages of life. "
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