Second woman pregnant with gene-edited baby, say authorities in China

Dr He Jiankui is facing 'punishment according to laws and regulations' in his homeland

A second woman is pregnant after taking part in the experiment to create the world’s first gene-edited babies, authorities in China have claimed .

The expectant mother was among eight couples recruited by researcher He Jiankui, who faced international condemnation in November after announcing the birth of twins with altered DNA.

Government investigators have claimed Dr He defied an official ban to carry out the work in secret in the hope of gaining fame and fortune.

The scientist began his project in 2016, raised funds and organised researchers on his own, dodged supervision and used fake blood tests and a fake ethical review certificate, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Between March 2017 and November 2018, Dr He carried out the experiments on the volunteer couples of HIV positive males and HIV negative females seeking fertility treatment.

Researchers edited the genes of the human embryos with the aim of making them naturally resistant to HIV and implanting them in the women.

Two volunteers fell pregnant as a result of the experiment. The first gave birth to twin girls known only as Lulu and Nana and the second is still pregnant. One couple dropped out of the project halfway through and the remaining five did not conceive.

Dr He is now facing “punishment according to laws and regulations” and a possible police investigation, Xinhua reported.

Investigators from the Health Commission of China in southern Guangdong province said that the doctor’s activities seriously violated ethical principles and scientific integrity and breached Chinese regulations.

The twin babies and the pregnant volunteer will receive medical observation and follow-up visits, the officials said.

Dr He, who studied at America’s Rice and Stanford universities before opening a lab at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, revealed his work to the world at a conference in Hong Kong.

He has still not released any data to back up his claims but the preliminary investigation by Chinese authorities appears to confirm the experiments took place.

Scientists have described the experiments, which would be illegal in most countries, as “monstrous” and potentially unsafe.

In an open letter, more than 100 scientists, most of them in China, said the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit the genes of human embryos was dangerous and unjustified.

Dr He said his goal was to give couples infected with HIV the chance to have a child resistant to the virus.

“I feel a strong responsibility that it’s not just to make a first, but also make it an example,” he said. “Society will decide what to do next.”