Outrage Intensifies Over Claims Of Gene-Edited Babies
Concerns over a Chinese scientist's claim that he created the first gene-edited babies grow with more questions about whether it worked and the possible harm he may have inflicted on the twin girls.
Ever since a Chinese scientist rocked the world by claiming he had created gene-edited twin girls, international outrage has only intensified.
"Everything that's emerged over the last week only adds to the concern about this having been a deeply unfortunate, misguided misadventure of the most dramatic sort," says Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. "It was shocking at the time. A week later, it's still shocking."
As researchers have scrutinized the scant details made public by the scientist, He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, it has become clear that He actually missed precisely editing his genetic target.
