CRISPR co-inventor responds to claim of first gene-edited babies
On Sunday, a scientist stirred major controversy by claiming that the world’s first genetically edited babies were recently born in China. The scientist, Jiankui He, claims to have used gene-editing technology on the babies’ embryos to disable a gene that allows the body to contract HIV.
He said families need this technology. But many scientists were outraged, saying gene-editing technology is still in early stages of development, the long-term effects of such practices are still unknown and ethical questions about the practice have yet to be answered. There’s also the fact that such use of gene-editing technology is illegal in the U.S. and many other countries, though it’s not explicitly banned in China.
One scientist who disagreed with He is Dr. Jennifer Doudna, a professor of chemistry and molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley and co-inventor of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology. In a statement published on UC Berkeley’s website, Doudna said that He and his colleagues should “fully explain their break from the global consensus that application of CRISPR-Cas9 for human germline editing should not proceed at the present time.”
