The researcher shows no regrets: he announces new experiments on babies

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Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Chinese researcher He Jiankui manipulated the genomes of twins. At a congress, he now faces outrage. But no trace of remorse: he announces that a second woman is already giving birth to a child handled by a gene.

Despite global indignation, Chinese researcher He Jiankui defended his work that led to the birth of the world's first genetically modified baby. At a Genomforscher congress in Hong Kong, he also announced that another woman was pregnant with an embryo that he had handled at an early stage. Science needs to do more to help people with diseases, he says. The fellow researchers strongly criticized the scientist.

It was the first appearance of the largely unknown researcher since he caused a horror Monday with a video broadcast on Youtube by scientists and ethicists. He announced the birth of the first genetically modified babies, Lulu and Nana. Interventions on embryos Genschere Crispr / Cas9, still young, should allow babies, whose scientist wants to keep the identity secret, so resistant to HIV. Other experts doubt the medical benefits of the trials and highlight the risks to both girls and their offspring.

Until now, no independent confirmation

There has been no independent confirmation of Hey's request so far. However, the scientist pointed out that he had submitted research papers to a scholarly journal. At the same time, he stated that his research was disclosed to the public. This is all the more surprising as he had spread the message in a speech on Youtube himself, just before the start of the congress.

Here, experiences were the dominant theme. "He spoke in a big hall of the university and the room was packed," said biochemist Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, attending the congress. "He made a well-prepared impression and seemed very confident." At the conference, he reiterated that he had persuaded many childless couples, healthy mothers and HIV-infected fathers to join the experiments. In the end, one of the couples had twins. "I am really proud of this particular case," he said.

Allegedly successful experiments on mice and monkeys

He pointed out that he had already successfully conducted experiments on mice and monkeys. In the human embryo, he claims to have disabled the so-called CCR5 cell receptor, the main gateway to the IH virus. "Millions of people" could be helped if the technology was made available more quickly, he explained. He is not interested in creating designer babies, but in healing diseases.

The conference participants strongly criticized their colleague. "The atmosphere was extremely negative," Winnacker reported. "I have not met anyone who finds that he is good." The American virologist and Nobel laureate David Baltimore said the Chinese work was "irresponsible" and "medically useless". The case shows that "self-regulation of science" has failed.

"Red line crossing"

At the same time, Emmanuelle Charpentier, who had co-developed the Crispr / Cas9 collateral scissors, is said to be "very worried". "Jiankui clearly crossed the red line, mainly because, in his research, he ignored the concerns of the international scientific community regarding the editing of human germ lines," said director Max Institute. Planck of infectious biology in Berlin. Already on Monday, the other two key developers of the Genscher, the American researchers Jennifer Doudna and Feng Zhang, had distanced themselves.

Other researchers have accused He, in Hong Kong, of compromising the reputation of total genome research by his "intransparent" attempts. The researcher apparently did not inform the Chinese authorities or his Shenzhen University of his experiences. The Chinese government claims to have ordered the examination of the experiments.

He told Hong Kong that, apart from his team, there were only four people, including an American researcher and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At the three-day convention, which was to last until Thursday, Winnacker considered a joint statement on his attempts.

Source: n-tv.de