A Chinese court yesterday sentenced the doctor who claimed to be behind the world’s first gene-edited babies to three years in prison for illegal medical practice, state media reported.
He Jiankui (賀建奎), who shocked the scientific community last year by announcing the birth of twins whose genes had allegedly been altered to confer immunity to HIV, was also fined 3 million yuan (US$429,295), Xinhua news agency said.
He was sentenced by a court in Shenzhen for “illegally carrying out the human embryo gene editing intended for reproduction,” Xinhua said.
THREE SENTENCED
Two of his fellow researchers were also sentenced. Zhang Renli (張仁禮) was handed a two-year jail term and fined 1 million yuan, while Qin Jinzhou (覃金洲) was given 18 months, suspended for two years and fined 500,000 yuan.
According to the court verdict, the trio had not obtained qualifications to work as doctors and had knowingly breached China’s regulations and ethical principles, Xinhua said.
They had acted “in the pursuit of personal fame and gain” and seriously “disrupted medical order,” it said.
Xinhua said that a third gene-edited baby was born as a result of He’s experiments, which had not previously been confirmed.
USE OF CRISPR
He announced in November last year that the world’s first gene-edited babies — twin girls — had been born that same month after he altered their DNA to prevent them from contracting HIV by deleting a certain gene under a technique known as CRISPR.
BIOETHICAL CONCERNS
The claim shocked scientists worldwide, raising questions about bioethics and putting a spotlight on China’s lax oversight of scientific research.
Amid the outcry, He was placed under police investigation, the government ordered a halt to his research work and he was fired by his Chinese university.
Gene editing for reproductive purposes is illegal in most countries.
The Chinese Ministry of Health issued regulations in 2003 prohibiting gene editing of human embryos, although the procedure is allowed for “non-reproductive purposes.”
He’s gene editing meant to immunize the twins against HIV might have failed in its purpose and created unintended mutations, scientists said earlier this month after the original research was published for the first time.
He claimed a medical breakthrough that could “control the HIV epidemic,” but it was not clear whether he had even been successful in immunizing the babies against the virus because the team did not reproduce the gene mutation that confers this resistance, scientists told MIT Technology Review.
AN IMPERFECT TOOL
While the team targeted the right gene, they did not replicate the “Delta 32” variation required, instead creating novel edits whose effects are not clear.
Moreover, CRISPR remains an imperfect tool because it can lead to unwanted or “off-target” edits, making its use in humans hugely controversial.
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