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By Alexandra Harney and Kate Kelland
SHANGHAI / LONDON (Reuters) – A Chinese university announced on Monday that it would immediately open an investigation after an associate professor posted videos on YouTube, claiming he published the genes of twins born earlier this month and defended the ethics of his work.
The University of Science and Technology South of Shenzhen City, in the south of China, said that she was not aware of the research project and that this academic, He Jiankui, was on leave without pay since February.
The work is a "serious violation of ethics and academic standards," he said.
The university issued a statement after he said Monday in five videos posted on the video-sharing site that he had used a gene editing technology, CRISPR-Cas9, to edit the binoculars genes.
The editing process, which he calls gene surgery, "worked as expected" and the girls are "as healthy as other babies," he said in a video. It was impossible to verify the statements because he did not provide any written documentation of his research.
CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology that allows scientists to cut and paste DNA essentially, which gives hope for genetic solutions to the disease. However, his security and ethics are also of concern.
"If true, this experience is monstrous," said Julian Savulescu, director of Oxford Uehiro's Practical Ethics Center at Oxford University.
The Southern University of Science and Technology announced the creation of an independent committee of experts to conduct an investigation. He indicated that he was on leave without pay until 2021.
"The Southern University of Science and Technology strictly needs scientific research that complies with national laws and regulations, as well as ethics and international ethical standards," he said.
Reached to comment on the university statement, he stated that he had been on voluntary leave for several years to devote himself to his research, without specifying a date.
In the videos, the scientist defended his work by stating in a sentence: "I know my work will be controversial, but I think families need this technology, and I'm willing to accept criticism of them."
In an email previously sent to Reuters, he said he planned to share test data during a scientific forum held this week. He added that he also foresaw that this procedure "goes through the process of peer review and pre-printing soon". A pre-print is a publication of the results obtained before the publication of the research in a peer-reviewed journal.
The MIT Technology Review and the Associated Press first reported on its latest work.
In a previous telephone interview and in emails with Reuters, he said it was intended to give the gene-modified baby a "lifelong" protection against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
He said that he had started work in the second half of 2017 and had registered eight couples. All the potential fathers involved were HIV positive. Five chose to implant embryos, including the parents of the twins, identified only by the pseudonyms Mark and Grace. The names of the babies are Lulu and Nana, he said in a video.
In April 2015, scientists from Sun Yat-sen University sparked global controversy after publishing the results of an experiment using CRISPR-Cas9 to alter non-viable human embryo genes.
Describing his work, Savulescu, of Oxford University, said, "These healthy babies are used as genetic guinea pigs.This is Russian genetic roulette."
(Report by Alexandra Harney in Shanghai and Kate Kelland in London, additional report by Philip Wen in Beijing, edited by Neil Fullick)
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