The Embryos Heard Round the World: A Timeline of the Infamous CRISPR Babies
In China, there are more than 820,000 people living with HIV or AIDS. In 2018, the country saw a 14 percent increase in the number of citizens with the disease. Discrimination against HIV/AIDS causes job loss, isolation, and sometimes even forced sterility.
He Jiankui, a Chinese biophysicist and former professor of biology at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China, recognized this problem and believed he came up with a solution using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology.
In late November 2018, He announced that he had successfully gene-edited the embryos of two twins using in vitro fertilization and CRISPR techniques. Their father is HIV positive, indicating its presence in the twins’ genome. Jiankui edited their genomes in order to protect them from HIV by disabling CCR5, the gene that normally acts as a doorway for HIV to enter into a cell.
Gene editing embryos lends cause for concern since the modifications made in an embryo can be inherited by future offspring and have several risks, many of which are still unknown.
Previously, humans have only had genes edited as adults in the hopes to treat deadly diseases like blood disorders, cystic fibrosis, and other hereditary illnesses. Gene editing embryos lends cause for concern since the modifications made in an embryo can be inherited by future offspring and have several risks, many of which are still unknown. The announcement that two healthy twin girls had been born genetically modified in an attempt to protect them from HIV, a disease treatable by other more affordable methods, therefore sparked worldwide controversy.
To understand how this controversy came to be and where we begin this conversation, follow the timeline below.
June 2016: He’s research on gene-editing embryos to protect them from HIV infection began despite the fact that there are alternative and more accessible ways to treat the disease.
March 2017 — November 2018: The experiments were carried out with eight volunteer couples, unbeknownst to SUSTech or government officials.
November 25, 2018: He announced the birth of the first ever genetically edited babies, the twin girls, sparking shocked responses from scientists and ethicists around the globe.
November 26: SUSTech published a statement that He had been on unpaid leave since February 2018, his research was not affiliated with the university, and it violated their academic ethics and codes of conduct.
November 28: He presented his research at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong. He stated that he was proud of his work and that another pregnancy of a gene-edited embryo was underway.
November 29: Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Xu Nanping, announced the suspension of He’s research and ordered for an investigation to be conducted into He and his team’s actions. They stated that no similar research should be attempted. He was scheduled for another presentation at the summit, but it was later cancelled.
December 1: He was allegedly brought back to Shenzhen and placed under house arrest.
December 26: He was seen at a university guest house with his wife and child in Shenzhen, China, guarded by at least a dozen officials.
January 7, 2019: The Telegraph reported possible charges of corruption and bribery, which in China can be punishable by the death penalty.
January 21: The Chinese government released preliminary investigation results stating that He violated several laws in pursuit of fame and fortune, including having “avoided supervision, faked an ethical review, and used potentially unsafe and ineffective gene-editing methods on the embryos.”
For more on why this study was so controversial, read When Science Challenges Ethics, on page 29.
