
He did his time
He Jiankui, the Chinese biophysics researcher who became the first to genetically edit human embryos, has been released from jail after three years. He has refused to make any statements to the press.
He was sentenced to prison after announcing at an international conference in Hong Kong that he had used CRISPR to insert a gene into three embryos to make them resistant to HIV. Initially this was hailed by the Chinese media as “a historical breakthrough”. But when foreign scientists expressed their dismay that he had apparently ignored ethical safeguards, his work was quickly suspended. He was later charged and found guilty of having “forged ethical review documents and misled doctors into unknowingly implanting gene-edited embryos into two women.” He was jailed for three years and fined 500,000 RMB (US$80,000).
Two of his Chinese colleagues were also found guilty but received less severe punishments. His international collaborators were never sanctioned or censured for their participation.
According to a report by Antonio Regalado, writing in MIT Technology Review, “It’s unclear whether He has plans to return to scientific research in China or another country. People who know him have described the biophysicist, who was trained at Rice University and Stanford, as idealistic, naïve, and ambitious. Before his world collapsed around him, He believed he’d created a new way to ‘control the HIV epidemic’ that would be considered for a Nobel Prize.”
More Stories
Henrietta Lacks family settles with biotech company over cell line profits
In a historic resolution that underscores the complex ethical questions surrounding medical research and profit, the family of Henrietta Lacks,...
Why are scientists boasting of creating ‘synthetic human embryos’?
A scientist working in Cambridge and California has just announced that she and her colleagues have made a ‘synthetic human...
Stem cell huckster sent to jail for 202 years
A 71-year-old Florida man has been sentenced to 202 years in jail for selling fake stem cell treatments in several...
Regulating dodgy stem cell clinics: FDA is appealing against ruling
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to appeal a surprising decision after it lost a case it...
Did He Jiankui ‘Make People Better’? Documentary spurs a new look at the case of the first gene-edited babies
In the four years since an experiment by disgraced scientist He Jiankui resulted in the birth of the first babies...
California court creates regulatory uncertainty over the FDA regulation of stem cell therapies
In a recent lawsuit brought by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a California judge entered a judgment in favour...