Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who became known worldwide in 2018 after creating genetically altered babies to resist HIV, recently said he will carry out research on gene editing in Hong Kong.
The investigator revealed that he obtained a visa through a program for talent in China’s semi-autonomous region, despite his criminal record, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported today.
He stated that he intends to investigate “gene therapies for rare diseases”.
“We plan to use artificial intelligence tools to develop adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids to improve the effectiveness of gene therapy in rare diseases,” explained He, without giving further details.
According to the Hong Kong newspaper The Standard, the Secretary of Labor, Chris Sun Yuk-han, assured today, in a press conference, when asked about this case, that “candidates for this competition for talents do not have to declare their background criminals”.
The secretary declined to comment on “individual cases”, adding that it is the Immigration Department that ultimately decides on visas to enter Hong Kong.
He, who worked as a professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in the southeastern Chinese city of Shenzhen until his resignation in January 2019, was sentenced in December of that year to 3 years in prison for his experiences with alteration. genetics.
From He’s experiment, carried out using the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic editing technique, three babies were born: in 2018, two twins named Lulu and Nana, and the following year, another named Amy.
In his last public appearance, at a conference at the University of Hong Kong, in November 2018, the scientist was “proud” of his work, stressing that his study was not aimed at eliminating genetic diseases, but “giving girls the natural ability to ” to resist possible future infection with HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.
The scandal prompted Chinese authorities to revise their regulations on genetic alteration in humans, requiring national-level approval for clinical research in this field or other “high-risk biomedical technologies”.
The Chinese government has also published new guidelines to reform ethical review processes in areas such as life sciences, medicine or artificial intelligence.
