By: Riya Naik (riyaongenetics.blogspot.com)
The
world’s first genetically edited baby or in fact babies are born! Isn’t that
surprising! But first, we need to know if this is true or fake. This blog
summarizes the new controversy about the Chinese Professor, He Jiunki, who
claims that he has successfully edited faulty genes in twins.
This
all started on the 28th of November 2018 when Professor He at the Genome Summit
in Hong Kong announced that he was successful in editing the genes of twin
girls. The father of the twins was HIV positive whereas the mother was HIV
negative. The twins were at the risk of inheriting HIV. However, Professor He
with the use of the CRISPR/ CAS9 technology was able to reduce the twin’s risk
of inheriting HIV. CRISPR/CAS9 is a gene found in the bacteria which is known
for cutting the default gene. When bacteria are infected with a virus, they
use this gene to “cut” the DNA of a harmful virus. This gene is used to delete
the mutated1 gene and add the donor gene. The mutated gene is cut by
the “scissors” or CAS9 and the donor gene fills the void in the DNA. This way
the mutated gene is replaced by the donor gene. Nevertheless, all this is done
while there exists a single human cell in other words, this is all performed on
an embryo. As it is impossible to alter the DNAs in trillions of cells. A
pretty exciting and interesting technology right?
Many
professors believe his research untrue because the University he worked did not
fund the research, therefore, denying the validity of this claim. Also, many
other scientists believe the information untrue as there is no scientific paper
backing up his claims. Professor He asserts that he privately funded the
research which involved the deleting of the gene of the twins, Lulu and Nana.
Moreover,
the whole ethical questions come into the play. Are the genetic engineers
playing Gods by going against nature?
Professor
He played God and many ethicists believe that this action is unethical as
Professor He has deliberately made one twin as a control which can make her
susceptible to HIV whereas the other twin is not. CCR5 is a coreceptor protein
which provides a way to infect other cells with the HIV virus. Professor He
turned the CCR5 gene off in one twin and kept one gene on in the other twin.
This action favors one twin over the other.
In
conclusion, many ethicists and scientists reject this claim to be untrue.
Please let me know your thoughts on the issue in the comment section below.
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