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.