The Controversy regarding the World's first genetically edited babies

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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 Jiankui 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 Jiankui 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 bacterias 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 Jiankui 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 play. Are the genetic engineers playing Gods by going against nature? Professor Jiankui’s action of deliberately choosing one twin as a control making her more susceptible to HIV than the other twin is considered as malpractice by many ethicists. CCR5 is a coreceptor protein that provides a way to infect other cells with the HIV virus. Professor Jiankui 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.
Here is a picture of Professor Jiankui He:



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