He Jiankui
He Jiankui is a Chinese biophysicist known for his controversial first use of genome editing in humans in 2018. He was listed as one of Time 100 most influential people of 2019, in the section "Pioneers". At the same time, he was widely condemned as a mad scientist.
He served as associate professor of biology at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, before his dismissal from the university in January 2019. In November 2018, He announced that he had created the first human genetically edited babies, twin girls who were born modified with HIV resistance in October 2018 and were known by their pseudonyms, Lulu and Nana. The announcement was initially praised in the press as a major scientific advancement. However, following scrutiny on how the experiment was executed, he received widespread condemnation from the public and scientific community. An investigation report showed that he raised money for his research to evade government and university research regulations.
His research activities were suspended by the Chinese authorities on 29 November 2018, and he was fired by SUSTech on 21 January 2019. On 30 December 2019, a Chinese district court found He Jiankui guilty of illegal practice of medicine, sentencing him to three years in prison with a fine of 3 million yuan. He was released from prison in April 2022.
In February 2023, his application for a Hong Kong work visa was granted but was soon revoked after the Hong Kong Immigration Department launched a criminal investigation against him for making false statements in his application. In September 2023, He was recruited by the Wuchang University of Technology, a private college in Wuhan, Hubei, to serve as the inaugural director for the school's Genetic Medicine Institute.
Early life and education
He was born in Xinhua County, Loudi City, Hunan, in 1984. He was the son of a family of poor rice farmers in southeastern China. As a teenager, he built a makeshift laboratory at home and became obsessed with physics in high school.From 2002 to 2006, He studied quantum physics as an undergraduate at the University of Science and Technology of China and graduated with a bachelor's degree in modern physics in 2006. After winning a scholarship to complete doctoral studies in the United States, He enrolled at Rice University in 2007 and initially studied physics and astronomy there.
He earned his Ph.D. in biophysics in 2010 from Rice University under the supervision of Michael W. Deem after only three years of study. His doctoral dissertation was titled Spontaneous emergence of hierarchy in biological systems. According to the university, He was an outstanding student who specialized in mathematical modeling and computer simulations. He also served as the president of the Rice Chinese Students and Scholars Association and published three significant papers in Protein Engineering Design and Selection as the lead author while completing his doctorate. Deem recalled in 2010 that He was "a very high-impact student" and added that he was "sure he will be highly successful in his career".
Throughout his early scientific career, He was known as "a smart and ambitious young scientist" and went by the nickname "JK". After he received his doctorate, He went to Stanford University to work on CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique as a postdoctoral fellow with Stephen Quake, a position in which Michael Deem had recommended him. From 2011 to 2012, He did his postdoctoral research at Stanford, where he learned CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing techniques.
Career
In 2011, He received the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad while still in the United States. Responding to an ad, He returned to China in 2012 under the city of Shenzhen's Peacock Plan and opened a lab at the Southern University of Science and Technology. As part of the program, he was given 1 million yuan in angel funding, which he used to start biotech and investment companies. He founded Direct Genomics in 2012 in Shenzhen, to develop single-molecule sequencing devices based on patents invented by Quake that had formerly been licensed by Helicos Biosciences. Direct Genomics received 40 million yuan in subsidies from Shenzhen, and raised hundreds of millions yuan more in private investment, but He sold his stake in 2019. He also founded Vienomics Biotech, which offers genome sequencing services for people with cancer. In 2017, He was included in the Chinese government's Thousand Talents Plan. He Jiankui's achievements were widely revered in Chinese media, including China Central Television and the People's Daily which covered his research and described him as "the founding father of third-generation genome editing" during a program celebrating the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.In August 2018, He met with Chinese-American doctor John Zhang to discuss plans to launch a company focused on "genetic medical tourism." The business was to target elite customers, operating out of China or Thailand. The business plans were shelved following He's detainment in November 2018.
He took an unpaid leave from SUSTech starting in February 2018, and began conducting the genome-editing clinical experiment. On 26 November 2018, he announced the birth of gene-edited human babies, Lulu and Nana. Three days later, on 29 November 2018, Chinese authorities suspended all of his research activities, saying that his work was "extremely abominable in nature" and a violation of Chinese law. In December 2018, following public outcry regarding his work, He appeared to have gone missing. SUSTech denied the widespread rumors that he had been detained. On 30 December 2019, the Shenzhen Nanshan District People's Court sentenced He Jiankui to three years in prison and a fine of three million yuan. He Jiankui was released in April 2022 after serving the term.
September 2023, He Jiankui became the Dean of Pharmacology Laboratory, Wuchang University of Technology.
Research
In 2010, at Rice University, He Jiankui and Michael W. Deem published a paper describing some details of the CRISPR protein; this paper was part of the early work on the CRISPR/Cas9 system, before it had been adopted as a gene editing tool.In 2017, He gave a presentation at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory describing work he did at Southern University of Science and Technology, in which he used CRISPR/Cas9 on mice, monkeys, and around 300 human embryos.
In January 2019, scientists in China reported the creation of five identical cloned gene-edited monkeys, using the same cloning technique that was used with Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua – the first ever cloned monkeys – and Dolly the sheep, and the same gene-editing CRISPR/Cas9 technique allegedly used by He in creating the first ever gene-modified human babies Lulu and Nana. The monkey clones were made in order to study several medical diseases.
Human gene-editing experiment
On 25 November 2018, He Jiankui first announced on YouTube that his team successfully created the world's first genome-edited babies, Lulu and Nana. Formally presenting the story at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the University of Hong Kong three days later, he said that the twins were born from genetically modified embryos that were made resistant to M-tropic strains of HIV. His team recruited 8 couples consisting each of HIV-positive father and HIV-negative mother through Beijing-based HIV volunteer group called Baihualin China League. During in vitro fertilization, the sperms were cleansed of HIV. Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing, they introduced a natural mutation CCR5-Δ32 in gene called CCR5, which would confer resistance to M-tropic HIV infection. The People's Daily announced the result as "a historical breakthrough in the application of gene editing technology for disease prevention".The experiment had recruited couples who wanted to have children; in order to participate, the man had to be HIV-positive and the woman uninfected. At the time, it was not disclosed whether the clinical experiment had received appropriate ethical review from an institutional review board before it started, and it was unclear if the participants had given truly informed consent.
He Jiankui said that he edited the genomes of the embryos using CRISPR/Cas9, specifically targeting a gene, CCR5, that codes for a protein that HIV-1 uses to enter cells. He was trying to create a specific mutation in the gene,, that few people naturally have and that possibly confers innate resistance to HIV-1, as seen in the case of the Berlin Patient. He said that the girls still carried functional copies of CCR5 along with disabled CCR5 given mosaicism inherent in the present state of the art in germ-line editing. There are forms of HIV which use a different receptor instead of CCR5, and the work that He did could not protect resulting children from those forms of HIV.
He Jiankui said he used a preimplantation genetic diagnosis process on the embryos that were edited, where 3 to 5 single cells were removed and the editing was checked. He said that parents were offered the choice of using edited or unedited embryos.
The twin girls were born by mid-October 2018, according to emails from He to an adviser. According to He, they appeared to be healthy in all respects. When they were born, it was unclear if there might be long-term effects from the gene-editing; He was asked about his plans to monitor the children, and pay for their care should any problems arise, and how their confidentiality and that of their parents could remain protected. The names of the children used in reports, "Lulu" and "Nana", along with the names of their parents, "Mark" and "Grace", are pseudonyms. In February 2019, his claims were reported to have been confirmed by Chinese investigators, according to NPR News.
He Jiankui also said at the Hong Kong meeting that a second mother in his clinical experiment was in the early stages of pregnancy. Although there are no official reports, the baby was expected around August 2019, and the birth was confirmed from the court verdict on 30 December which mentioned that there were three genetically edited babies. The baby was later revealed in 2022 as Amy.
In February 2022, Chinese scientists called for building a special facility to care for and study the three children born with genetically edited genomes or 'CRISPR Babies'. They assert that errors could have occurred in the gene editing process. The scientists believe the children's genomes should be regularly sequenced and tested for 'abnormalities'. The proposal has received pushback from the international medical community citing invasion of the children's privacy and future abuses of power.