Meanwhile, attendees of Hong Kong summit blast Chinese scientist’s claim of creating world’s first gene-edited twin babies as ‘irresponsible’
China’s science ministry on Thursday ordered that anyone conducting research in gene editing halt their activities.
The order came as organizers of a biomedical conference where a Chinese scientist defended his claim that he has created the world’s first genetically-edited babies denounced his work as irresponsible.
The leaders of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing issued a statement Thursday on the last day of their conference in Hong Kong criticizing He Jiankui’s claim as “deeply disturbing.”
Dr. He spoke to the summit on Wednesday about his work in claiming to have used a gene-editing technology dubbed CRISPR to alter the DNA of twin girls born to an HIV-positive father to prevent them from contracting the virus that causes AIDS.
