Scientist He Jiankui said this week that he used a gene-editing
technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of the
twin girls born this month.
He's announcement, which has not been verified, sparked an
international outcry about the ethics and safety of such research.
"The nature of this incident is extremely nasty, and relevant bodies
have been ordered to temporarily halt the scientific research
activities of relevant personnel," the state news agency Xinhua
said, citing the health ministry, science and technology ministry
and China Association for Science and Technology.
The organizers of a conference where He claimed to have edited the
genes also condemned the work on Thursday, calling it "deeply
disturbing" and "irresponsible".
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"Even if the modifications are verified, the procedure was
irresponsible and failed to conform with international norms," the
organizing committee of the Second International Summit on Human
Genome Editing, being held in Hong Kong this week, said in a
statement.
The committee called for an independent assessment of He's claims.
He said gene editing would help protect the girls from infection
with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Chinese scientists have also condemned the work and the Southern
University of Science and Technology, where He is on leave from his
position as an associate professor, has announced an investigation.
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The Guangdong province Health Commission said on its website on
Wednesday it and Shenzhen city had set up a team to investigate the
case.
He's filing to a Chinese clinical trials database indicates that a
hospital did an ethical review of the project, but the hospital
involved denied that its ethics review committee ever met to discuss
the work.
He said after his presentation on Wednesday he was proud of what he
had done.
The presidents of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and
the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (NAM) also expressed concern
about He's work.
"The events in Hong Kong this week clearly demonstrate the need for
us to develop more specific standards and principles that can be
agreed upon by the international scientific community," NAS
president Marcia McNutt and NAM president Victor Dzau said in a
statement.
(Reporting By Alexandra Harney; Additional reporting by Ben
Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)
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