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HONG KONG Chinese scientist He Jiankui justified the "validity" of having created the first genetically modified babies in the world without institutional support and announced that another woman is pregnant with an embryo whose genes have also been modified.
He announced on Monday that he had used the Twin CRISPR / Cas9 technique to make them resistant to diseases such as HIV, a revelation that has sparked controversy and doubt from the public and the scientific community. inside and outside China.
Read more: Controversy after the announcement of genetically modified babies
The scientist had planned in advance to attend a symposium on human genome editing at the University of Hong Kong, which was now attracting a keen interest in academia and academia. media on the campus of the university where the conference was being held. "The study yielded effective results and was delivered for review" to the scientific community, he said.
The geneticist – who admitted that his experience had not been approved by any official institution – said that the genetically modified binoculars, Lulu and Nana, "were born healthy and happy", thanks to the in vitro fertilization with technology genetic modification "that will prevent HIV infection". However, he then announced that he would be taking a break in his clinical trials "because of the controversies" that have arisen.
"All the turmoil is due to the leak of information about my study," he said, who arrived "ahead of time," while conference host Robin Lovell -Badge, confirmed that the organizers knew nothing at all. experience
The scientist was "proud" of the use of the CRISPR / Cas9 gene modification technique and pointed out that the study was not aimed at eliminating genetic diseases, but at "giving girls the natural ability" to resist a possible future. HIV infection. "Although HIV treatment has progressed, new infections remain a problem for many countries, especially the least developed," he added.
He explained that he had experienced seven couples, one of whose members was infected with HIV, and had announced that there was at least one pregnancy between them "in its infancy" and others more "possible". "We have been working with seven couples in which the man is carrying the AIDS virus and the woman is not," he said, stating that he had used up to 30 per cent of the time. to eleven embryos in six attempts of implantation.
In a rather vague way, he said that he had financed the experience himself, that she "was not carried away in secret" and that he had reported to scientists in China, the United States and the United Kingdom, but did not mention names. "Some people need help and we have technology," he said, noting that parents had been informed about the risks inherent in the experiment and had shown their agreement.
He also thanked the University of Science and Technology of the south of Shenzhen City with which he worked "even though they did not know" what he was doing. Last Monday, the same university announced that she would investigate the scientist and said that she felt "deeply shocked by this case", which he described as "a serious violation of the law". ethics and academic standards ".
Read more: They order an investigation after the birth of genetically modified babies
The Chinese authorities, on the other hand, announced today that they were "very concerned" by this case, to which they will "seriously" tackle once they have clarified what is going on. has happened. China's Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Xu Nanping, reminded the press that China limits in vitro research on human embryonic stem cells to a maximum of 14 days, according to the ethical guidelines published in 2003.
More than 120 scholars of the Chinese scientific community said Monday in a statement published on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, that "any attempt" to modify human embryos through genetic modification is "foolish". the light for these babies is "high risk".
Overall, Nature magazine took part in the debate on Monday and said that this announcement caused a "scandal" among the international scientific community and that, if true, "would represent a significant step forward in the use of the amendment. of the human genome ". .
Nature pointed out that this type of tool has not been used so far to study its benefits for the elimination of pathogenic mutations, adding that the scientific community "has long been asking" for the creation of ethical guidelines, long before a case like this one would show up.
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