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The big mystery at the centre of China’s gene-edited baby scandal: where is scientist He Jiankui?
- Most of scientist He Jiankui’s data has been available for some time, an insider says.
- But there’s still no word on where he is a year after he revealed his experiment
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Stephen Chenin Beijing
While the whereabouts of a Chinese scientist at the centre of a gene-editing controversy remain a mystery, most of his research data released publicly this week “for the first time” has been available for about a year, according to Chinese scientists.
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He Jiankui, former associate professor of life science at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, shocked the world last year when he announced that he had edited the genes of twin Chinese girls to prevent them from inheriting HIV from their father.
The development made the girls the world’s first gene-edited babies and unleashed a storm of criticism from the international scientific community and Chinese authorities for unethical use of the technology.
On Tuesday, MIT Technology Review released excerpts of a manuscript submitted by He to a Western journal about a year ago, together with some experts’ comments.
The reviewers concluded that the He’s experiment could not be dubbed a success, and the twins – known only as Lulu and Nana – might not have lifelong immunity to HIV as He expected.
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