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TechScience & Research

A year since China’s gene-edited baby scandal, here’s how the technology has advanced

  • CRISPR, the technique used by Chinese researcher He Jiankui to alter the DNA of Chinese twin girls Lula and Nana, could introduce accidental mutations
  • Nonetheless, the past year has seen the technology being advanced by scientists worldwide

Reading Time:6 minutes
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A researcher loads Cas9 protein and PCSK9 sgRNA molecules into a fine glass pipette in Shenzhen, China. Photo: AP
Coco Fengin Guangdong
In late 2018, Chinese researcher He Jiankui roiled the scientific world by announcing he had helped make the world’s first gene-edited babies, altering the DNA of Chinese twin girls Lula and Nana to try to make them resistant to HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
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The scandal brought attention to the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges of research into gene editing, with a panel convened by the World Health Organisation (WHO) director general saying in March that it would be “irresponsible” for scientists to use gene editing for reproductive purposes. Beijing has since tightened its laws on genetic engineering, drafting new rules in the past year to tackle the previously loosely regulated sector, although it is too early to tell if these can be effectively enforced.

Gene editing is intended as a more precise way to do gene therapy, and has been tried in adults to treat diseases without much controversy as the DNA changes do not pass to future generations.

But while experts generally believe that gene editing could benefit human society, they have called for stricter regulation and ethical scrutiny as the technology develops.

Earlier this month, He's original research was made public for the first time by MIT Technology Review to show how He ignored ethical and scientific norms in creating the twins using a gene-editing method called CRISPR.

The Chinese biophysicist's manuscript made claims of a medical breakthrough that could “control the HIV epidemic”, but it was not clear whether it had even been successful in its intended purpose – immunising the babies against the virus – because the team did not in fact reproduce the gene mutation that confers this resistance.

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