HIV Researchers Slam The Scientist Who Made Genetically Engineered Babies
By Nidhi Subbaraman,
BuzzFeed
| 11. 26. 2018
“I’m angry on behalf of the genetic engineering community. I’m angry on behalf of the HIV community,” one expert said. The researchers said that existing methods already offer parents simple ways to have children without transmitting the disease.
HIV researchers are incensed that the first reported use of gene editing in human embryos was aimed at conferring HIV immunity, criticizing the move as reckless and unnecessary.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that twin girls Lulu and Nana were born after a team led by He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, edited their genes when they were days-old embryos. Their father reportedly had HIV, and the procedure wiped out a gene that is usually necessary for the virus to infect cells. The news, first reported by MIT Technology Review, broke before the scientist had published any of his data, and was accompanied by YouTube videos in which He described his work.
Genetics experts immediately criticized the project as premature and said it risked conferring dangerous mutations to the twins.
Adding to that chorus, HIV researchers told BuzzFeed News that such a procedure doesn’t make sense for preventing HIV. Targeting and knocking out a single gene, as He claimed to do, does not offer resistance against all strains of the virus. What’s more,...
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A worldwide debate is under way on how to regulate gene editing in human sperm, eggs or embryos.
A researcher steps forward and says he has plans to edit the genes of babies. He wants to alter a gene called ...
The journal Nature reported yesterday that a scientist in Russia claims he will attempt to produce gene-edited babies using CRISPR technology. Molecular biologist Denis Rebrikov’s stated plan is to disable the CCR5 gene in human embryos and implant them into HIV-positive mothers. Disabling the gene is thought to provide protection against some forms of HIV, but to increase susceptibility to some other infectious diseases.
If he proceeds, Rebrikov will be the second scientist known to engage in the widely condemned...
