Major error undermines study suggesting change introduced in the CRISPR babies experiment shortens lives

A scientific study published this past spring came with damning implications for Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who created the world’s first gene-edited babies: People with the rare genetic variants that He tried to engineer into embryos, the study asserted, had an increased death rate.

On Friday, the paper’s senior author said his study was wrong.

“The one thing that all scientists fear the most is to find out that a major result they have published was based on erroneous data,”