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China halts gene-editing activities on babies
News:
- China’s government has ordered a halt to work by a medical team that claimed to have helped make the world’s first gene-edited babies.
Important Facts:
- Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, caused outrage earlier this week when he told a genome summit, he had altered the genes of twin baby girls so they could not contract HIV.
- Mainstream scientists have severely condemned the experiment as it is unethical.
- Many countries, including the UK, have laws that prevent the use of genome editing in embryos for assisted reproduction in humans. Scientists can do gene editing research on discarded IVF embryos, as long as they are destroyed immediately afterwards and not used to make a baby.
- Although He Jiankui claim is not yet confirmed but China’s National Health Commission has ordered an investigation into HeJiankui’s experiment as it is against the Chinese relevant laws and regulations.
- About GenomeEditing
- Genome editing is the deliberate alteration of a selected DNA sequence in a living cell.
- It involves editing an organism’s DNA by altering, removing or adding nucleotides to the genome.
- Most uses of genome editing have been in scientific research for example to investigate models of human disease.
