Controversial CRISPR genetically enhanced baby from China might be government funded experimental project
Few month back A scientist named He Jiankui claimed to genetically edited two twin babies called Lulu and Nana using CRISPR gene editing technique which also might have altered their brains too resulting in sharp minded and high IQ levels.
He Jiankui also mentioned in his various documents that the experimental project was backed by the government funding. When news broke about such an experiment being done by a Chinese scientist erupted a scientific debate about the effectiveness of such an experiment at human level experimentation. Early questions which were arise that how he got necessary ethical approvals for this project and funding for it. Which the all local bodies have denied any information about this experiment and Government also kept its distance from this controversial project which started an ethical debate right after his claims around the World’s scientific community.
An investigation published yesterday (Feb. 25) by the Boston-based health and medicine-focused news outlet STAT, suggests three government institutions, including the country’s science ministry, may have funded He’s research.
According to the state-run Xinhuanews agency
He’s institution, Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, said it had had no knowledge of the trial, which He headed while on leave, and a provincial government investigation later found that “He had avoided supervision, raised funds and organized researchers on his own to carry out the human embryo gene-editing research intended for reproduction,”
Yet STAT investigators found official funding sources listed on documents related to the trial, a slide presentation He’s team compiled credits China’s Ministry of Science and Technology for funding the project. The Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, by contrast, names the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Free Exploration Project as the sponsor. And the trial’s informed-consent forms list He’s university as the funder. But the ministry tells STAT it did not fund the such trial, although the outlet notes it’s possible grants for previous research in He’s lab were used for the trial.
“It’s unlikely that He acted alone,” Lei Ruipeng of the Centre for Bioethics at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan tells STAT.
“I hope the ongoing investigation addresses the institutional issues that culminated in the affair. Otherwise, it would leave open the possibility of similar scandals.”
Other Chinese researchers suggested that He might have inaccurately listed official funding sources in a bid to gain credibility. “I would be very surprised if government agencies officially funded the CRISPR babies project,” Mu-ming Poo, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, tells STAT.
He Jiankui claimed to edited the specific portion of the genome using newly developing but controversial technology called CRISPR to make twins immune to the HIV virus which causes AIDS. According to his claims he permanently deleted a gene called CCR5, which encodes a protein that allows HIV to enter cells. He was aiming to mimic a mutation that exists in about 10% of Europeans, and helps to protect them from HIV. But He might have inadvertently caused mutations in other parts of the genome, which could have unpredictable health conditions.
CCR5 is thought to help people fight off the effects of various other infections, such as West Nile virus. If the gene is disabled, the girls could be vulnerable.
But according to the new research shows that the same alteration introduced into the girls’ DNA, deletion of a gene called CCR5, not only makes mice smarter but also improves human brain recovery after stroke.
“The answer is likely yes, it did affect their brains,” says Alcino J. Silva, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles
News of the first gene-edited babies also inflamed speculation about whether CRISPR technology could one day be used to create super-intelligent human beings, in biotechnology race between the US and China. Which might have dangerous consequences resulting in genetic imbalance.
What He Jiankui has done might propel human gene editing more promising which could lead us to immorality.
