He Jiankui, who is eager for quick success, left the world with reflection and norms on what he did
Writing | Tian Dongliang
Source | “Medical Community” Public Account
He Jiankui, who was sentenced to three years in prison by a Shenzhen court over the “gene-edited babies” incident, has reportedly been released from prison. A reporter called him, but he hung up without responding to questions.
He Jiankui once hoped to use gene editing technology to make babies immune to AIDS, and announced on November 26, 2018 that he had created the world’s first gene-edited baby. He originally expected to become famous overnight, and the first official report did indeed call his research “a milestone achieved by China in the field of gene editing technology.” However, as people in the scientific community joined the discussion, public opinion quickly turned, and He Jiankui ushered in strong condemnation from the scientific community.
Gene-edited babies event
He Jiankui and the gene-edited baby are described at length in the book “The Man Who Cracked the Gene Code”. He Jiankui was born in a village in Xinhua County, Hunan Province in 1984. The memory of childhood poverty made him full of desire for success. He was admitted to the University of Science and Technology of China, and after graduation, he went to the United States to obtain a doctorate. After returning to China, he served as an associate professor in the Department of Biology at Southern University of Science and Technology.
In August 2016, He Jiankui participated in the CRISPR conference held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he posted a photo with Jennifer Downer on his personal social platform. (Jennifer Doudna) selfie. It was Jennifer Downer and her collaborators who invented the CRISPR gene-editing tool, which opened up a new world of medical miracles and sparked numerous ethical controversies.
He Jiankui and Jennifer Durner take a selfie
The book quotes Dudner’s impression of He Jiankui at the time: I found that he was eager to meet people and to be accepted, but he had not published any important literature, and it seemed He also doesn’t appear to be conducting any important scientific research.
What Jennifer Dorner didn’t know was that He Jiankui had already begun to prepare genes to allow AIDS-affected couples to give birth to HIV-immune babies.
According to domestic media reports, from March 2017 to November 2018, He Jiankui recruited 8 couples of volunteers to participate in the trial by forging ethical review documents, and eventually 2 volunteers became pregnant, of which A world-shattering twin, gene-edited baby girls Lulu and Nana, has been born.
The man who cracked the genetic code revealed that only one of Lulu’s two related chromosomes was properly modified. In addition, before the CRISPR editing was completed, the embryos had already undergone enough cell divisions that some of the baby’s split cells had not been edited.
On November 23, 2018, Dodner received an email from He Jiankui with the subject line: The baby was born.
Deuterner’s reaction to the email, the book says, was first baffled, then shocked, then horrified.
Over the next three days, 500 scientists and policy makers from around the world will arrive in Hong Kong for the second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, of which Denar is a core organizer One of them, and He Jiankui was the presenter.
In Hong Kong, Dorner met He Jiankui, at a time when the gene-edited baby incident had caused a stir. Durner patiently explained to He Jiankui why germline gene editing was not medically necessary to prevent HIV infection. However, He Jiankui argued that Daedna did not understand China. He said that Chinese HIV-infected people were stigmatized very seriously. He wanted to give these people a chance to live a normal life and to help them have children of their own.
On the morning of November 28, 2018, He Jiankui started his report under countless flashes. In the question-and-answer session after the report, Ruqian Liu, a well-known biochemist at Harvard, asked him: Why did he feel that embryo editing was absolutely necessary in this case?
The last question was asked by a reporter: If it was your own baby, would you do this? He Jiankui replied: If my baby is in such a situation, I will try it.
He Jiankui Image from the National Academy of Sciences website
After He Jiankui was sentenced, the Wall Street Journal asked Dudner for his views on the sentence, and Dudner criticized He Jiankui’s research. The scientific community must deal with safety and ethics, she said. Because of the enormous unknown risks at this stage, CRISPR should only be used when it is absolutely medically necessary and no better alternative exists.
This is also the reason why Dana could not accept He Jiankui’s use of CRISPR to achieve HIV immunity, because it is not absolutely medically necessary to allow HIV-infected people to give birth to healthyBaby, there is another way.
In addition, some scholars have pointed out that the “off-target effect” of CRISPR technology is obvious, resulting in huge experimental risks. In June 2019, a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, a monthly publication of the journal Nature, questioned the possibility that the twin girls who had undergone gene editing by He Jiankui may have genetic mutations that shorten their lifespans.
Discussions and reflections from He Jiankui
Gene editing technology for human reproduction is prohibited by law in many countries. At present, the scientific community has gradually reached a consensus that relevant basic research should be allowed, but it cannot be extended to clinical applications in the field of reproduction; in the future, gene editing clinical trials of early embryos may be approved under strict supervision conditions, but only limited to the prevention and treatment of serious diseases. disease.
While the whole world was still cautiously exploring, He Jiankui suddenly announced that a gene-edited baby had been born. No wonder it sparked a worldwide discussion.
After the incident of He Jiankui’s gene-edited babies, on September 3, 2020, an international committee composed of multinational scientific research institutions issued a report saying that once the genome of human embryos has been edited, it should not be used for reproduction , until there is conclusive evidence that precisely altering the genome leads to reliable results and does not lead to unexpected changes. And no genome editing technology currently meets this standard.
The report also makes a number of recommendations, including that any country should engage in a broad social dialogue before deciding whether to allow gene editing; if proven safe and effective, initial use should be limited to serious, Life-shortening diseases, which are caused by mutations in one or both copies of a single gene, such as cystic fibrosis; rigorous tests such as biopsies and regular examination of embryos at each stage of the process to prevent Accidents occur; keep an eye on pregnant women and any children born as a result; an international scientific advisory group should be established to continuously assess safety and efficacy so that any research that deviates from the guidelines can be reported.
In July 2021, the World Health Organization released two interlinked reports that made the first recommendations on how to make human gene editing a tool for public health globally, Emphasis is placed on being safe, effective and ethical.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Human gene editing technology has the potential to improve our ability to treat and cure disease. But only when applied in the interest of all mankind, Rather than further exacerbating inequalities in health care between countries, this technology can be fully effective.”
The World Health Organization also pointed out that there are certain risks in gene editing technology. For example, germ cell and hereditary gene editing will change the genome of human embryos, and these changes may be passed on to offspring, changing offspring. genetic characteristics.
In the “Basic Medical Care and Health Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China”, which came into effect on June 1, 2020, new regulations clearly stipulate that in the process of conducting medical research or providing medical and health services , Violation of medical ethics should bear legal responsibility.
Article 58 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Physicians, which will come into effect on March 11, 2022, clearly states that those who seriously violate the professional ethics and medical ethics of doctors and cause bad social impact, The competent health department of the people’s government at or above the provincial level shall revoke the doctor’s practice certificate or order to stop illegal practice activities, and shall be prohibited from engaging in medical and health services or medical clinical research for five years to life.
He Jiankui, who is eager for quick success, left the world with reflection and norms on what he did, while Jennifer Anne Durner, and Emmanuel Charpontier (Emmanuelle Charpentier) and won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their contributions to “developing genome editing methods”.
Source: Medicine
Editor in charge: Zheng Huaju
Proofreading: Zang Hengjia
Plate making: Xue Jiao