Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
- The claim is unsubstantiated as of yet, but if true it would mark a historic moment in science and ethics.
- The scientist claims to have edited a gene that controls whether someone can contract HIV.
- Many say gene-editing is unethical, or that its technology is too premature to be used responsibly.
A chinese scientist claims to have helped create the world’s first genetically edited human babies, a development that would be both historic and highly controversial if true.
The scientist, He Jiankui of Shenzhen of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, said he and his colleagues used a gene-editing technique known as CRISPR to modify the embryos of twin girls born this month. The team reportedly made changes to one-day old embryos in a gene called CCR5, which enables HIV to enter and infect immune system cells. These changes supposedly made it impossible for the girls, whose father is HIV-positive, to contract the virus, which causes AIDS.
“When Lulu and Nana were just a single cell, this surgery removed a doorway through which HIV enter to infect people,” He says in one of several videos the scientist posted online, adding elsewhere that analyses confirm that both babies were born healthy. “No gene was changed…
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