HONG KONG (AFP) – A scientist in China claims to have created the world’s first genetically-edited babies, in a potentially ground-breaking and controversial medical first. Chinese university professor He Jiankui posted a video on YouTube saying that the twin girls, born a few weeks ago, had their DNA altered to prevent them from contracting HIV. The professor, who was educated at Stanford in the US and works from a lab in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said their DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision. The development emerged on Sunday (Nov 25) in an article published by industry journal the MIT Technology Review, which referenced medical documents posted online by He’s research team at the Southern University of Science and Technology to recruit couples for the experiments. He’s video then went online, prompting a heated debate among the scientific community, including from experts who cast doubt over the claimed breakthrough, and others who decried it as a modern form of eugenics. He said the babies, known as “Lulu” and “Nana” – although these are not their real names – were born through regular IVF but using an… Read full this story
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