The university suspends the Chinese scientist who claims to have created genetically modified babies

The Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST) has suspended without pay the geneticist He Jiankui, who is currently under investigation by the authorities to determine whether the experiment violated laws or regulations.

On Monday, geneticist He Jiankui announced that there is created the first genetically modified babies in historyIt's about twins Lulu and Nana. An assertion that has upset the world of science and that even several investigators have described as crazy. (Read: "Babies on demand" in China spark global debate)

However, the tumult and controversy do not stop. This Tuesday, after the Chinese government ordered to open an investigation to He Jiankui to corroborate his experience, the University of Science and Technology of the South (SUST), where he was a scientist, He announced that he would suspend him without pay.

This has been announced Chen Yi, president of SUST, who convened a meeting with He Jiankui and the other scientists who apparently participated in this investigation which, for Chen Yi, constitutes a violation of the ethical and academic rules of the country (you can read: China opens a research on genetically modified babies ).

The President, as well as the other directors of the institution, also claim that this experiment was not performed in the facilities of the university and, therefore, they have no responsibility for what happened. "This has nothing to do with SUST, the survey was not conducted there and the scientists are suspended without pay," the president told a local media outlet.

The commotion began Monday when He Jiankui, a geneticist trained at Stanford University in the United States and who runs a special laboratory on the genome in Shenzhen, explain that they had managed to eliminate the CCR5 gene to prevent sisters from being born with the HIV virus whose father is the bearer. According to him, girls will be protected against smallpox and cholera. (Read also: a Chinese scientist claims to have created the first genetically modified babies)

Binoculars Lulu and Nana were born healthy a few weeks agoIn vitro fertilization from modified embryos before their implantation in the mother's uterus. These results were not corroborated, as the Chinese team did not publish any of its findings in a scientific journal.

Before the news, More than 100 Chinese scientists, mainly biologists and doctors, have deplored this fact. and they have labeled it as "madness, that assumes a big blow to world reputation and the development of biomedical inquiry in China".