The first "designer children"
Chinese scientist announced the birth of genetically edited children
Olga Dobrovidova, N+1
Chinese scientist Jiankui He announced the birth of the world's first children from genetically edited embryos. According to the scientist, twins were born, in whom he tried to create resistance to HIV infection. He spoke about his work in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, there is no scientific article about his research or independent confirmations yet, but he has already been criticized for experiments on humans with unproven effectiveness.
The first experiment in the USA on editing the genome of human embryos using CRISPR/Cas9 technology was presented by American scientists in the summer of 2017, before that similar work was carried out in China, including on viable embryos. In all experiments, editing was carried out for medical purposes, and the embryos were subsequently destroyed.
In the fall of 2017, British scientists published the results of an experiment in which the editing of the genome of human embryos was used for the first time not for the treatment of congenital diseases, but for purely research purposes. Genome editing at the level of the whole embryo implies the inevitable transmission of changes by inheritance, which raises concerns of some scientists and politicians. There is no consensus on the legal status of such studies in Western countries yet. Although human cloning is prohibited in China, there is no direct ban on the genetic editing of viable embryos, unlike in the United States.
Hae told AP that he edited the embryos of seven couples undergoing IVF, and so far one of the procedures ended in pregnancy and childbirth. According to him, the girls' parents refused to identify themselves and give comments, and he did not tell the agency where they live and where the work was done. He recruited patients through a group of HIV activists in Beijing. In addition to AP, He told about his research to the organizer of the conference on genetic editing, which will begin on Tuesday (the conference is not named in the material, but apparently this is the second international summit on human genome editing in Hong Kong).
"I feel a huge responsibility for the fact that this is not just the first such case, but also an example for everyone. The society will decide what to do next [to allow or prohibit such research]," He said.
Two of the scientists interviewed by AP harshly criticized this ethically unacceptable "experiment on humans", noting that the technologies for such work have not yet "matured". However, George Church, a geneticist from Harvard University, stressed that the very task of combating HIV justifies the use of genetic editing methods.
He told the agency that he studied at Rice University and Stanford in the United States and now works at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, where he has a laboratory and two companies in the field of genetics. Before experimenting with human embryos, he worked with mice and monkeys. In his latest experiment, he tried to "disable" the CCR5 gene, which encodes a protein that allows HIV to enter the cell. The AP article mentions the CRISPR/Cas9 editing method, but there is no direct indication that He used it. In total, the scientist managed to edit 16 out of 22 embryos, 11 of which were used in six attempts – one ended in pregnancy and childbirth. The following attempts are not being carried out yet to make sure that the experiment has taken place.
According to He, one of the girls had both copies of the desired gene edited, and the second had one copy, he did not find evidence of damage to other genes. However, experts interviewed by AP, including Church, have studied the materials provided by He to the agency, and believe that the tests conducted are not enough to say with confidence that the editing was successful and did not cause harm.
In addition, the agency notes that He officially notified the state about his work through the register of clinical trials only on November 8, much later than it began. In the forms of informed consent for the participants of the experiment, the program was described as "the development of an AIDS vaccine", so it is not obvious that the participants really understood its purpose, risks and benefits. He claims that he personally explained to all the couples that the implantation of edited viable human embryos had not been carried out before, and that he promised all the children born medical insurance and regular examinations until the age of 18 and beyond.
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