What is known

In a recent interview, He Jiankui revealed that he is once again working in the field of human genetic engineering. It is reported that these new experiments meet ethical standardsand the scientist promised that he would no longer work to create other modified humans.

In November 2018, he shocked the world by announcing at an international scientific conference that his team had gene-edited several human embryos and then successfully transplanted them into female volunteers. The purported purpose of the changes, which were made using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, was to provide immunity against HIV infection.. At the time of the announcement, a woman had given birth to twin sisters Lula and Nana, and a third child was born the following year.

Editing the genome of living humans clearly violated Chinese law. And government officials investigating the case soon said he committed other ethical violations to ensure his experiments went as planned, such as falsifying blood test results from HIV-positive male volunteers so they could be used for assisted reproduction.

On Monday, Japanese publication The Mainichi published an interview with He Jiankui. Allegedly after being released from prison He continued his research on editing the genome of human embryos in three laboratories. The scientist hopes that these studies will one day lead to treatments for rare genetic disorders such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy and hereditary Alzheimer’s disease. He also promised that his work is now completely legal.

We will use discarded human embryos in accordance with national and international legislation,
He said the following in an interview with the Mainichi newspaper.

Although he has expressed some regrets about the way he conducted his infamous experiments, claiming the research was “too hasty”, the scientist remains adamant about the safety and originality of his work. According to him, the children born as a result of his experiments – they are now about five years old – revealed no evidence of editing-related disease or off-target genetic alterations.

I am proud to help families who want to have healthy children.
says.

Although he says he won’t try to create other modified humans, he believes “society will eventually accept” this type of genetic engineering in the future.